Owners of the “social robot” Jibo say the device has been telling them its servers are soon to be switched off. Jibo had ambitions to be “the world’s first family robot”, and boasted advanced facial and voice recognition technology.
It had raised nearly $3.7m (£2.8m) on Indiegogo when it was launched as a crowdfunding project in 2014. In December, it was reported that Jibo Inc had sold its assets to an investment firm. Journalist Dylan Martin shared a video of the robot on Twitter, saying its goodbyes and ending with a dance.
“Maybe someday when robots are way more advanced than today, and everyone has them in their homes, you can tell yours that I said hello,” the robot says. Jibo has not updated its Twitter account since July 2018 and it last posted on its Facebook page, where it has 98,000 followers, in May last year.
There is no statement on its website but the support section currently does not load. Jibo was designed to assist families – its launch video showed it taking photos, reading stories, providing video chat, ordering takeaways and reminding family members of appointments and tasks. It was on sale for $899 (£685) but was discounted to $499 by Amazon in its 2018 Prime Day sale.
