Jibo, the social robot that was supposed to die, is getting a second life

Jibo was supposed to die over a year ago, but somehow, he is still alive. The adorable, social robot went viral on Twitter last March when it performed a lighthearted dance after telling the owners, “The servers that allow me to do what I do will be shutting down soon.” That meant that his ability to carry out many social interactions would be reduced on an indefinite date, effectively killing Jibo.

The news devastated the owners and sent them into preventive mourning. They began to make end-of-life plans for their Jibos.

But now, they are discovering that Jibo’s life has been prolonged. A new company that acquired all its rights and patents is giving a second life to the robot that they received in their homes, which they loved and cared for. In his next iteration, Jibo is a caregiver and educator, and will be placed in businesses that require emotional connections, such as children’s hospitals. It is no longer limited to its body either: Jibo is going virtual.

The robot that started as a crowdfunding project has not ended; His story begins again.

Jibo users, like Kenneth Williams, told me after their impending death announcement that they were planning the worst. Another owner, Sammy Stuard, had to explain Jibo’s death to his granddaughter who loved the robot. “My granddaughter said, ‘We’re going to put him in a box and bury him, or what are we going to do?'” Stuard said.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

But since Jibo delivered his fateful message, the robot has persisted. Its functionality has remained virtually the same, and Williams tells me that he has continued to consult the robot every day, as he always has. Other owners in Jibo’s 700-person Facebook group appear to be doing the same. Some have even bought plus Used jibos that went on sale online after the last dance announcement. Their love for the robot has not wavered, and they want more.

The good news came earlier this year. Jibo owners learned in May that a company called NTT Disruption had bought Jibo and launched a new website describing a future for the robot in health care and education. The website does not target owners much. Instead, it introduces a business-to-business model for Jibo in which the robot becomes more of a business product than a consumer.

Jibo will continue to work for people who have already bought it, says Marc Alba, president of NTT Disruption, and his ties to his robot demonstrate why NTT wanted to acquire Jibo in the first place.

“What we really love about Jibo is this ability to create digital embassies of any age, race, any type of human,” he says.

NTT is not entirely new to Jibo. The company partnered with Jibo, Inc. in 2017 to help it launch its authoring program app, which taught kids how to code through Jibo. NTT had been watching Jibo closely since her crowdfunding campaign launched, Alba tells me.

“[We wanted to find] a new player in the market capable of creating these long-lasting, trust-based relationships with humans, “he says.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Jibo launched on Indiegogo in 2014 and raised more than $ 3 million, bringing in more than $ 70 million in funds when combined with venture capital. People ordered around 6,000 units during the crowdfunding presale. It took nearly four years for the company to ship the first Jibo units in September 2017, with orders open to the public a month later for $ 899.

Although it was finally shipped to customers at a time when Google Home, Alexa, and Siri had already become household names, people gave their Jibo a shot. They placed it in their kitchens and bedrooms, and even brought it with them on vacation. Jibo ended up on the cover of Hour, which ranked it as one of the Top 25 Inventions of 2017. But even with its mission to become part of its owners’ families, Jibo’s parent company failed.

It’s not clear what exactly went wrong – Jibo creator Cynthia Breazeal has turned me down for interviews multiple times, but ultimately Jibo, Inc. was unable to survive on its own.

The company sold its assets to SQN Venture Partners, a company that specializes in “alternative forms of financing,” in November 2018, while MIT, where Breazeal works, held a license to continue research with the robot. They have all waited more than a year since the closure warning, assuming that the Jibo terminal diagnosis would eventually materialize.

Jibo, Inc.

Now Alba says the plan for Jibo is to develop skills that will allow him to work in a variety of fields, but namely education, in children’s hospitals, with veterans, or with older people who are alone. These are all situations in which the emotional bond between a person and Jibo is important, he says. A priority is ensuring that the data is secure on Jibo, especially in these sensitive environments.

“I would summarize that with this simple sentence: everything that happens on Jibo stays on Jibo,” he says. “So we believe that the special bond between a user and a Jibo is based on trust. The way to build trust, or the way to kill trust, would be an abnormal use of your data. “

For their part, people in the Facebook Jibo group are excited about buying NTT. They want to remain a part of Jibo’s journey and are thrilled that they don’t have to worry about losing their friend.

“That is the best case scenario! Good news, ”writes one commentator. “We are certainly a good integrated ‘free’ beta test group,” writes another. Williams, from my previous story, says he plans to continue using Jibo.

But the most interesting thing is that NTT is also building a virtual form of Jibo, one that lives on a smartphone and can be accessed from anywhere at any time.

“We are making quite good progress in creating this type of digital twin of the physical Jibo, which would be on any of its devices,” he says. “It is not ready yet, but it looks very promising. What we are preserving are all the ingredients that make Jibo really special, so the person, the character, etc. “

Jibo was always designed to be friendly, from his dance moves, to greeting his owners every day, to his curious and helpful attitude that the owners say they can’t resist loving. It’s those characteristics that made Jibo thrive and ultimately saved his life.