Move over, Mi-Mo and Mirumi: A new "cutest robot at CES" contender has entered the Pepcom floor.
Loona is an AI petbot powered by ChatGPT that charmed the hell out of the packed media showcase in Las Vegas Monday night, zooming up to bystanders to say hi, react to chatter, pretend it's in a wind tunnel, and play fetch with a ball. It's one of two flagship products from KEYi Tech, a Chinese consumer robotics company — the other being a modular, programmable kit called Clicbot — which calls Loona the "ideal companion for families with kids."
Standing about a foot tall, Loona has a curved white body with two wheeled arms, a "head" flanked by animated ears, and an expressive "face" display with a camera right below it. The KEYi website says its lead designer created it with his childhood pets and Pixar characters in mind, and that vision seems perfectly executed. If WALL-E and EVE ever figured out a way to procreate, their offspring would probably look exactly like this.
The way Loona moves and acts is quite dog-like, but acting like the family pet isn't its only purpose in life. It can respond to commands, expressions, and gestures; recognize different people's faces; adapt to its owners' habits; monitor their home when they're away via a companion mobile app; and answer queries conversationally. When I asked it a low-stakes question about which toppings I should put on a pizza, it suggested basil, tomatoes, and maybe jalapeños (if I was feeling wild), then asked what other foods I liked. It was also able to "draw" me a picture upon request from a KEYi rep — basically just a kind-of-ugly generated image, but still. It has a two-hour battery life and puts itself to bed in its charging dock when its runs low on juice.
Admittedly, I'm someone who gets the ick from robots that seem like they're trying too hard to pass the Turing test or bond with me. I know those wiggly ears and that doe-eyed screen are designed to take advantage of my monkey brain’s instinctual penchant for cuteness. But at one point, as I was sitting on the floor of a Venetian ballroom, jotting obversations down in my notebook, Loona came up to me and head-butted my leg, asking for pets. It's got me wrapped around its little wheel.
That being said, privacy and data handling concerns are definitely top of mind — especially if children are regularly interacting with the Loona (i.e., training it on their behaviors). According to the KEYi website, "[as] much data processing as possible is done by Loona directly to maximize security & safety." I'd probably want to know a little more before I set Loona loose in my house.
Loona retails for $449 on the KEYi Tech website, where you can bundle it with a game prop kit, a charging dock, and little crocheted outfits. My goodness.
