DhunkuAI companion for children 4 to 10
Child-friendly AI. Your child talks. The grown-ups shape it.
Dhunku is an AI cat your child talks to, not watches, with no phone or tablet needed, in English, Hindi or Hinglish. Parents set what it gently helps with and see what it flags. The parent side works today; the teacher side is next.
- Made by hand in Pune
- English, Hindi and Hinglish
- Parents set goals and see flags
- For children about 4 to 10
Working prototype, made by hand in Pune. Not on sale yet: families are invited from the waitlist in small batches. No payment is taken on this site.
Why we built this
Made for one child first.
An engineer and her son
Shital, a hardware engineer, built Dhunku for her 7-year-old son, and he helped design it.
AI without a screen
She wanted him to meet AI by talking to it, not by looking at a screen.
Then for every child
His friends were amazed, so we decided to make Dhunku for every child.
The ecosystem
The child talks.
The grown-ups shape and see it.
Dhunku is built as an ecosystem: the child talks to the cat, and the grown-ups around them shape it and see what matters from a back end. The parent side works today; the teacher side is next.
Child
Working todayTalks to the cat
One button, then just talking: questions, stories, nonsense. It answers, then asks something back, in English, Hindi or Hinglish. The face shows expressions, never videos or games.
Parent
Working todayShapes it and sees it
On the parent page you add things to gently help with, such as handling anger when a game is lost, pause or resume them, and see how often each came up. You set interests and quiet hours, delete remembered facts, and see safety and wellbeing flags at the top.
Curriculum
In prototypeA CBSE topic map, LKG to Class 10
654 topic titles, with no lesson content yet. After a chat, Dhunku notes which topics it touched, and the parent page shows progress per subject. Today it does not steer the conversation toward the syllabus.
Teacher
RoadmapA teacher and school portal
Classes, weekly topics and a behavioural focus set by the school, reaching each child's Dhunku. It is in design: nothing for teachers exists yet.
What comes next
- Conversations woven from what your child is studying, set by a parent or teacher.
- Off-limits topics you choose yourself, with alerts beyond the parent page.
- ICSE and state boards, after CBSE.
- A transcript view for parents.
- A separate parent login for each family.
Working today: built and live on our server now. In prototype: built, but early. Roadmap: not built yet.
The round face
A face that listens.
Not a screen to stare at.
It shows it is listening
While your child speaks, the eyes open wide and the cheeks glow, so they can see they are being heard.
A moment to think
While the answer is on its way, the eyes glance around and a small sparkle twinkles beside them.
A smile that talks back
The smile opens and closes with its voice, with happy squints and blinks along the way.
Faces as drawn by the Dhunku firmware for its round display. The display shows expressions and status, never videos or games.
Why Dhunku
Talking, not tapping.
Parents shape and see it.
Screen free conversation
Your child talks and listens. The small face shows expressions, never videos, games or a feed.
English, Hindi and Hinglish
It answers in English by default, and in Hindi when your child speaks Hindi or Hinglish or asks for it.
Parents shape it
Set the things it gently helps with and quiet hours. Safety and wellbeing flags sit at the top of your parent page.
Built to keep them talking
It answers, then asks something back, so your child does most of the talking.
MEET DHUNKU
Dhunku, in 30 seconds.
Screen-free conversations for curious children. Parents set the goals and see the flags.
The idea
Not all time with a device is the same.
Every parent already knows the difference between a child who is being entertained and a child who is being drawn out. It is not about how many minutes.
With a tablet
Quiet. Tapping. Watching.
They might be focused, they might be somewhere else entirely. From across the room you cannot tell. Words go in. Nothing gets built.
With Dhunku
Thinking out loud.
Arguing that ants are stronger than elephants. Tripping over a word, going back, trying again. Building something out of language that no tapping game ever asked them for.
Children learn a language by using it, not by listening to it. So this one is built to make your child do most of the talking.
How it works
Through conversation, not content.
No character to pick, no card to tap, no activity to launch, no level to unlock. It begins with your child speaking and keeps going for as long as they want.
Ten minutes, no app
Out of the box it makes its own Wi-Fi network. Join it from your phone, the setup page opens by itself, and you pick your home network and your child's class. If the Wi-Fi ever changes, it reopens that page instead of sitting there beeping.
Press the button
One big button starts a voice led conversation. The round face screen shows expressions and status, not a menu of games to swipe through.
Say anything
A question, a story, complete nonsense. Half finished sentences and invented words are fine. That is how children actually talk.
The conversation keeps going
It answers, then asks something back. The conversation keeps moving, and your child does most of the moving.
Why it fits an Indian home
Built for how children here actually speak.
English first, Hindi when they want it
Replies are in English by default. When your child speaks Hindi or Hinglish, or asks for Hindi, it answers in Hindi, and it goes back to English when they do. A child switching languages mid sentence is not confused. They are just being themselves.
It adapts to your child
Their interests, and the gentle goals you set. A child who loves dinosaurs gets dinosaur stories, and a goal you set comes up only when their own words open the door.
It celebrates the attempt
Not "Good job!" but "I liked the part where you said your friend was being kind." Every conversation should leave a child a little braver than it found them.
Checked before the AI sees it
A safety check runs on what your child said before any AI model is given the words, not as a filter afterwards. Sensitive moments are handled gently and flagged on your parent page rather than quietly absorbed.
Gentle goals, never a lesson
Ask it to help with sharing, or with losing a game calmly. It works that in only when your child brings it up, never announces it, and never says a grown-up asked.
Voices built for Indian speech
It runs on speech models trained on how India actually sounds, so an accent, a code switch or a Hindi word mid sentence is the normal case rather than an edge case.
Conversation logic stays on the server
There is no camera; the persona, conversation memory and safety checks run on the server. The device stores its own Wi-Fi credentials, device token and child setup details (such as name and interests). Treat a lost or opened device as containing sensitive settings.
It follows your child
Dinosaurs, a fight at school, why the moon follows the car. It never steers them into a lesson or offers a menu of approved topics. Today the topic map only notes what a chat touched.
Nothing to chase
No scores, no streaks, no badges. A conversation that wanders is not a conversation that failed. Children learn sideways.
The voice
One voice. Endless patience.
The same character every time, so your child builds a relationship rather than meeting a stranger each session.
It never gets bored of the same question asked eleven times. It never sighs. There is no feed here to scroll and nothing to autoplay.
For parents
You shape it. You see what matters.
A companion your child talks to freely is only a good idea if the grown-ups around them can shape it and see what matters. Today your parent page shows safety and wellbeing flags first, then the goals you set, topic progress and how many conversations there have been. A transcript view for parents is on the roadmap.
Flags at the top of your page
If your child mentions being hurt or afraid, or tries an unsafe topic, it is raised at the top of the parent page where it cannot be scrolled past, with a Seen button. "Uncle ke ghar jaane se dar lagta hai" is the kind of thing it catches, and "ludo haar gaya" is the kind of thing it ignores. There are no email or phone alerts yet.
Things to gently help with
Add a goal, such as handling anger when a game is lost, with an optional note. Pause or resume it any time. The parent page shows how often each one came up.
Progress per subject
When a chat touches a topic on the CBSE map for your child's class, it is noted, and the parent page shows how many topics in each subject have come up. Your child never sees a score.
We do not store the voice recording
Speech is sent to our speech provider to be turned into text. Our servers do not store the audio recording; what is kept is text.
A journal, not a profile
What it remembers is kept as plain sentences you can read, such as "his dog is called Rocky", listed one by one and deletable one by one. Conversation history older than 90 days is deleted automatically.
Hours you set
Decide when it is awake. Outside those hours it says goodnight rather than going silent, because a toy that stops answering just reads as broken to a five year old.
Ways to delete
Delete any remembered fact, or clear progress history, from the parent page. To wipe the conversation history or your child's whole record, email us and we do it for you.
Coming for parents
A transcript view, off-limits topics you choose with alerts beyond the page, and a separate login for each family. No ads and no camera, today or later.
Questions parents ask
Ask us anything.
Is this just another gadget in the house?
It is designed around conversation, not a feed or a game to unlock. The small round display on its face shows expressions and status. It is not for videos or browsing.
What if my child says something upsetting to it?
Sensitive moments are handled gently and are flagged for you on the parent page rather than being quietly absorbed. It will never pretend to be a substitute for you.
Do I need an app to set it up?
No. On first switch on the device makes its own Wi-Fi network. Join it from any phone, the setup page opens by itself, and you pick your home network and your child's class. It saves and restarts. If your Wi-Fi password ever changes, it reopens that same page.
Does it teach the school syllabus?
Not yet, and here is exactly where it stands. Dhunku has a CBSE topic map from LKG to Class 10: 654 topic titles, with no lesson content. Today it only notes which topics a conversation touched, after the reply, and shows progress per subject on the parent page. It does not steer the conversation. Conversations woven from what your child is studying, set by a parent or teacher, are on the roadmap, and so are ICSE and state boards. Your child never sees a score, a streak or a badge.
Can teachers use it?
Not yet. A teacher and school portal is on the roadmap: classes, weekly topics and a behavioural focus that reach each child's Dhunku. Nothing for teachers exists today; the parent side is what works now.
Can I read my child's conversations?
Not as a transcript on the parent page yet. Conversations are kept as text on our server for up to 90 days. Today the parent page shows flags, the goals you set, topic progress and how many conversations there have been. A transcript view for parents is on the roadmap.
How quickly does it answer?
It varies. The server can send speech in parts, but the device may buffer the full reply before playback to keep it smooth; it starts early only if the connection is fast enough. A short waiting sound makes a longer wait clear. We cannot promise a particular time yet.
What exactly does it remember, and for how long?
Plain sentences, the kind you could read aloud: your child's name, that their dog is called Rocky, the story they were halfway through. You can read the whole list on the parent page and delete any single item. Conversation history older than 90 days is deleted automatically; remembered facts stay until you delete them. Ask us and we wipe the history or the child's whole record.
Does it need the internet?
Yes, for conversation. It connects over your home Wi-Fi, and you can set quiet hours when it simply will not wake up.
Which languages does it speak?
English by default, and Hindi when your child speaks Hindi or Hinglish or asks for it. More Indian languages are planned.
What age is it for?
Children about 4 to 10. It talks at a young child's level today. The topic map runs from LKG to Class 10, so progress can be tracked by class, but the toy itself is designed for younger children.
When can I get one, and what will it cost?
Each Dhunku is 3D printed, wired and tested by hand in Pune, so families are invited from the waitlist in small batches, in order. We have not announced a price or a delivery date, and nothing on this site takes a payment. Join the waitlist and you will hear first.
Can I buy one today?
Not from this site. Dhunku is a working prototype, and there is no shop on this site yet. Join the waitlist to be invited, or request a live demo to see and hear it talk first. Families who join early get our phone number and a direct line into what gets built next.
How we make it
One a day. By hand. In Pune.
There is no factory. There is a 3D printer that takes most of a day to print one shell, and then someone wires it, flashes it, talks to it to make sure it talks back, and packs it.
Batch 1 is 20 units
Not a marketing number. It is what can be built and properly supported at once. Every one is hand delivered or couriered with a real phone number attached.
We set up the first one with you
In Pune we come over. Elsewhere we stay on a call while you do it. Ten minutes, and we would rather watch it go wrong in front of us than read about it in an email.
Batch 2 is dated when Batch 1 ships
We are not going to take a hundred orders and then discover what it takes to build a hundred. If you are further down the queue we will tell you that, honestly, rather than guess a date.
Joining the waitlist costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Founding families are invited from the waitlist, in order, as each batch opens.
Early families
Meet it first.
Dhunku is made by hand in Pune, and a seven-year-old was its first tester. The waitlist is the queue: families are invited from it, in order, as each batch opens. Join it and you will hear before anyone else, and help decide what it learns to do next.