American Mensa Welcomes First Robot Member, Artie 3000

Educational Insights‘ Artie 3000 is the first robot member of American Mensa.

The high-IQ society named the coding robot an honorary member — the third fictional character to receive the honor, joining Lisa Simpson from The Simpsons and Mr. Peabody from DreamWorks’ Mr. Peabody and Sherman.

Artie 3000 made its debut at CES in January, quickly building buzz through Toy Fair season. Kids can watch Artie draw what’s been coded, line by line, moving forward, backward, and spinning in any direction while lifting and lowering one of four thin-tip, colored markers. Beyond free-form coding, Artie is pre-programmed with a variety of designs such as numbers and letters, shapes, games, and line-art for coloring.

Additionally, Mensa For Kids and Educational Insights collaborated on a series of Artie activities for professional educators and parents alike, all downloadable at www.codewithartie.com.

American Mensa will be at the 2019 Licensing Expo, taking place from June 4 to 6, at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. The organization currently works with licensing partners including Educational Insights, Hasbro, Match.com, Norwegian Cruise Lines, and Skyhorse Publishing. Mensa is seeking partners in a variety of categories and will exhibit at booth No. O51.

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About the author

James Zahn

James Zahn, AKA The Rock Father, is Editor-in-Chief of The Toy Book, a Senior Editor at The Toy Insider and The Pop Insider, and Editor of The Toy Report, The Toy Book‘s weekly industry newsletter. As a pop culture and toy industry expert, Zahn has appeared as a panelist and guest at events including Comic-Con International: San Diego (SDCC) Wizard World Chicago, and the ASTRA Marketplace & Academy. Zahn has more than 30 years of experience in the entertainment, retail, and publishing industries, and is frequently called upon to offer expert commentary for publications such as Forbes, Marketwatch, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USA Today, Reuters, the Washington Post, and more. James has appeared on History Channel’s Modern Marvels, was interviewed by Larry King and Anderson Cooper, and has been seen on Yahoo! Finance, CNN, CNBC, FOX Business, NBC, ABC, CBS, WGN, The CW, and more. Zahn joined the Adventure Media & Events family in 2016, initially serving as a member of the Parent Advisory Board after penning articles for the Netflix Stream Team, Fandango Family, PBS KIDS, Sprout Parents (now Universal Kids), PopSugar, and Chicago Parent. He eventually joined the company full time as a Senior Editor and moved up the ranks to Deputy Editor and Editor-in-Chief.