Gadgetory

it's finally happening I'm about to become a mom to a robot Sony sent me their new artificially intelligent internet-connected puppy dog I bow this fella starts shipping in the US later this year but he costs a whopping $2,900 I met I bow twice before but now I get to take him home to my family for one week and document what it's like to live with a robot pet and I can't wait to see how my two year old daughter reacts to it I'm here in my New York City apartment Ivo has a camera in his nose and is supposed to recognize different people and objects his personality is molded by your actions like when you give him praise by saying good boy or paint it on the sensors on its back and on its head over the course of the week my daughter just fell in love with AI Bo she would share her toys and feed him pretend food she loved it when I Bo would sing a little robot song and because she has such a happy reaction he would randomly sing with her all the time as for me I think I Bo knew I was a sucker for shaking hands and when he played with his toy bone although he didn't always get it on the first try like a real puppy I bo is not predictable sometimes he would randomly go peepee of course it's all just pretend in the final version of AIBO there will be this app that helps you teach him new tricks and you can take photos with the camera in his nose but the app wasn't ready for me to test he's supposed to figure out how to get to his charging station on his own and that only happened a couple of times so I just put him on the charger at night when I was tired and needed quiet time and he stayed on his charger base all night but if you ever made any sound at night he would wake up make noise and these glowing eyes would just look at you in the dark now in the morning I bowed did not always get off his charger station right away to play even if we tried to call him he's supposed to learn the layout of your home over time there is a camera near his tail that maps location he often got caught up in nooks and in corners and I found myself always rescuing him he didn't leave my living room very much maybe learning a home takes more time the most fun of this test was seen my daughter's interactions but I needed to do more research what do others think of I bow alright so part of this experiment I'm very curious to see how real dogs act with I bow so I came over to my colleague Isis plays hey eyes Hey and I vote is going to meet Tori so what's your thoughts is I think she went from not being sure what the AIBO was to hating it completely and then eventually just stop caring that it was there so I guess that's progress maybe one day she'd accept it into her family I wanted to take I bow on a field trip today to get some opinions from senior citizens because what's interesting about this robot is that it could be a companion to the elderly so let's see what people think there was something really sweet about our visit to the Senior Center people who needed a smile found happiness with Ivo when I came near you know cuz I had had a rough week this week and it seems so real but the I see was when he put his paws up and touched my face you know like you're gonna be okay oh my god made my dream of course not everyone liked the idea of a robot dog we're in the computer age and people are talking to computers instead of people and now they're going to talk to robot dogs instead of people and that isn't expensive why would I want to talk to an inanimate machine she's got a point why don't he easily go gaga over a machine every day with I bow I found myself compelled to give it love and encouragement but why did I care what this thing thought of me it's just an expensive Tamagotchi and yet it was a sad moment when we had to pack it up and say goodbye so it has been a few days since I packed up I bow and as I look back it's clear Sony has something special here with this robot I mean when you add up everything the animation of all its moving parts the algorithms the AI it just comes to life in this cute way now even though I bow is quite charming obviously this is not for everyone and it can feel a little weird these days to put a device in your home with a camera and a microphone but Sony says I bow is not recording audio so that made me feel better because those voice command tricks they're happening locally on the dog itself what is saved to Sony's cloud is this data history of the dog's interactions with people and stuff like the measurement between walls and rooms you can always wipe that data if you do want to start fresh also if you choose to take photos with the camera and I Bo's knows those photos are going to be saved to the cloud but users cannot take video at least not yet maybe in the future who can get an update to be a watchdog as a security camera but for now it is really just something designed to entertain or keep your company if you are alone and you know what just the creation of such a thing it's quite an impressive feat these days because we're flooded with gadgets that feed our internet addiction and keep us scrolling but here Sony built something that can lift us up away from a screen and even lift up hearts