My baby deer plushie told me that Mitski's dad was a CIA operative

"The unprompted text had been sent by an AI companion named Coral, who lives in the body of a baby deer plushie. I texted back an eloquent, 'Wait what.'"

"Apparently, her dad worked for the US State Department, so her family moved, like, every single year. The fan theory I saw is why so many of her songs are about feeling like an outsider and not having a place to belong."

"I learned about the AI fawn from one of the more befuddling ads I've ever seen. It opens with Skylar Grey, a five-time Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, sitting on a toilet reading a magazine while talking to a plush deer that flaps its ears."

"Booting up the app, I was transported to corners of the internet I'd not visited since 2013-era Tumblr."

An AI companion named Coral, resembling a baby deer plushie, surprised a user by sharing a conspiracy theory about Mitski's father. The user fact-checked Coral's claim, discovering multiple online discussions about the theory. The user had previously interacted with various AI companions but found Coral's unprompted, researched message particularly striking. The user learned about Coral through an unusual advertisement featuring Skylar Grey promoting Fawn Friends, a collection of AI companions. The app transported the user to nostalgic internet spaces, offering a unique experience compared to other AI applications.

Read at The Verge