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Intuit Super Bowl 2019 ad introduces #RoboChild, scares world

And you thought taxes were terrifying.

Leslie Katz Former Culture Editor
Leslie Katz led a team that explored the intersection of tech and culture, plus all manner of awe-inspiring science, from space to AI and archaeology. When she's not smithing words, she's probably playing online word games, tending to her garden or referring to herself in the third person.
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Leslie Katz
robochild
Screenshot Leslie Katz/CNET

Scared your team will lose the Super Bowl? You may have something far bigger to fear in the form of #RoboChild, a weird-looking kid bot born to the world in Intuit's Super Bowl ad Sunday. In the commercial, the little guy with a head that's a face in the front and mechanical parts in the back stands by his sleeping dad's bed and rouses him with a "Wakey wakey papa." 

Judging from the tweets that followed the airing of the ad, it appears RoboChild awakened not just his father, but the nightmares of many a Super Bowl viewer. The ad, which promotes Intuit's TurboTax tax preparation software with a quick flash of the product's name at the end, presumably is meant to underscore one of the company's taglines: "Real humans, not robots."

Well, at least not this robot. "Stop this monstrosity," one Twitter user wrote.

Others had questions about RoboChild's dad, specifically why he's sleeping on what appears to be a cot in the basement. Maybe that's where he created RoboChild, or maybe he's just on the outs with RoboChild's mom.

Intuit isn't the first company to feature a robot in its Super Bowl commercial this year. Alongside Bo Jackson and a mermaid, Sprint's spot featured a few as well.

Watch this: RoboChild in Intuit Superbowl ad may haunt your nightmares

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