A University in Devon will soon begin attempts to teach a robot baby how to talk.

We’re not quite sure why it has to be a robot baby rather than a robot adult. Perhaps adult robots are harder to teach?

Anyway, the University of Plymouth will spend the next four years on the project, starting next month. This includes studying how parents talk to infants and how they teach them to talk.

The three foot tall robot should also be prepared for hours of placing shapes in the corresponding holes.

The university won a 4.7m grant to conduct the research. It beat 31 others to the prize so here’s hoping they actually manage to get the little critter babbling.

Read the full story on the BBC.