Are Social, Personal Robots Getting Any Closer To Us

Hopes that tech industry was on cusp of rolling personal robots into homes are dimming now that several once-promising consumer robotics companies have shut down. 

latest casualty was San Francisco startup Anki, maker of playful toy robot Cozmo, which upon its release in 2016 seemed like start of a new wave of sociable machines. 

That dream ended this week when Anki CEO and co-founder Boris Sofman gared many of company’s nearly 200 employees to deliver news that all of m would be laid off Wednesday. b news soon spre to fans and owners of Cozmo and its newer cousin Vector, unveiled last year in an effort to appeal to grown-ups. 

“Cozmo was first robot that felt almost alive,” said David Schaefer, a programmer and robot enthusiast in Portland, Oregon, who was so enamored with feisty machine that he created a “Life with Cozmo” channel on YouTube that’s attracted millions of viewers. One of most popular videos, called ”Unrequited Love ,” documents Cozmo’s awkward interactions with a guinea pig. 

Anki’s demise was part of a string of failed efforts to launch life-like robots into market. Boston-based Jibo, founded by one of pioneers of social robotics, went out of business less than a year after its curvy talking speaker me cover of Time Magazine’s “best inventions” edition. Anor startup, California-based Mayfield Robotics, last year stopped manufacturing Kuri, a camera-equipped machine marketed as a watchful roving nanny. 

None of m have been able to compete with immobile smart speakers me by Amazon, Apple and Google, which cost less than ir more physically complex robotic counterparts but are powered by ever-improving artificial-intelligence systems that serve most users’ needs. 

“AI without a body has caught on really well,” said Yan Fossat, he of research lab at Toronto-based Klick Health, which is exploring social robotics in medical field. “Physical robots, with a body to do something, are not really catching up.” y cost too much for marginal service y offer, he said. 

Still, Anki got farr than most of its robotics hardware peers in appealing to masses with an emotionally intelligent machine that cost hundreds of dollars less than Jibo, Kuri or Sony’s robotic dog Aibo. 

“You cannot sell a robot for $800 or $1,000 that has capabilities of less than an Alexa,” Sofman told Associated Press last year. He and or company leers declined comment Tuesday, but a spokesman said company was “exploring all options to keep our products functioning and cloud services running.” 

company reported about $100 million in annual revenue in 2017, and as of last year h sold more than 1.5 million products, including its robots and car-racing game Overdrive. 

“It does feel a little devastating,” said Schaefer, who this week started Twitter hashtag #SaveAnki in hopes that a bigger tech company or toy maker might acquire it. “Anki took steps toward robotics that or companies haven’t tried yet.” 

Tech industry analyst Carolina Milanesi was also sdened by Anki’s demise, but a premonition of company’s fate was  Cozmo sitting idly on her daughter’s nightstand for past six months. toy market is unforgiving, and Anki may have been unable to extend its reach beyond it, she said. 

“re’s hype at beginning, you have very engaged kids, and n y move onto something else,” Milanesi said. “Kids grow up. She’s now 11 and ‘Fortnite’ is everything that matters to her in life.” 

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