Yahyah is crowdfunding a wooden frame with a talking AI character. It promises no subscription, no account for core features and a camera cover you slide shut.
A company called Yahyah has launched a Kickstarter campaign for a wooden picture frame with an AI character living inside it. You can talk to the character, touch the screen or wave at it. When nobody is around, the frame shows art or photos. The campaign runs through December 10, 2026.
Yahyah calls the product Yahyah Portrait and says it is the first "Living AI Portrait." A normal digital frame cycles through photos. This one is built around a hand-animated character. It recognizes faces and objects with a 5-megapixel camera and responds to voice, touch and gesture. It also senses room light and temperature.
The company says the character keeps a memory of past conversations. Its behavior is meant to be shaped by the household over time, instead of starting fresh each session.
A camera and microphone in a living room raise obvious worries. Yahyah says the camera sits behind a physical sliding cover. It says face data is processed and stored on the device, and that conversations are handled by a local server, not a third-party cloud service. Data is described as encrypted in transit and at rest.
The product is a one-time purchase. The company says character interaction, facial recognition, art display and ambient sensing will not require a monthly fee, and that core features need no account. A company manager says the portrait still recognizes you and runs its character with the network disconnected.
The material mentions early-bird pricing but gives no dollar amount. It gives no shipping date. It does not say how long the battery lasts, or what the "local server" is and where it sits. These are the company's own claims, and no outside testing is cited.
Kickstarter is also not a store. Backers fund a project before it exists in volume. The company itself warns that manufacturing schedules, parts supply and certification could change outcomes, and that campaigns are subject to change. Yahyah says it funded development itself and wants the campaign to move the frame into volume production.
Check the campaign page for the final price, the estimated delivery date and what "core features" means in writing. Ask whether any future features could carry a fee. Also ask what still works with the network off.
Before backing this frame, get the final price, delivery date and a written list of which features stay free and work offline.
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