Social robot Jibo does one last dance before its servers shut down

guest · Mar 4, 2019

Social robot Jibo does one last dance before its servers shut down
The company behind Jibo was sold in June and is ending its services
March 4, 2019
https://www.engadget.com/2019/03/04/social-robot-jibo-shutting-down-message/

Nearly one year after robotics startup Jibo was sold off for parts, the company's social robot of the same name is informing users that it will be shutting down. In a message accompanied by a dance, the robot informed owners that its servers are going offline, which will severely hamper most of its functionality.

It will continue to respond when users try to activate it by saying "Hey Jibo," but it won't understand other voice commands. Instead, the bot will display buttons on its touch screen display that feature functions it can still perform.

Jibo was a crowdfunding success when its creators launched an Indiegogo campaign in 2014, raising $3.6 million from backers. It took nearly three years for the company to finally get the bot in the hands of its supporters. By that time, smart speakers like Amazon's Alexa devices and Google Home were already on the market.
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guest · Jul 24, 2020

Jibo, the social robot that was supposed to die, is getting a second life
NTT Disruption is keeping Jibo alive
July 23, 2020
https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/23/21325644/jibo-social-robot-ntt-disruptionfunding

The robot they welcomed into their homes, loved, and cared for, is being given a second life by a new company that’s purchased all its rights and patents. In its next iteration, Jibo is a caregiver and educator, and it will be placed in businesses that require emotional connections, like children’s hospitals. It’s also no longer confined to its body, either — Jibo is going virtual.
The robot that started as a crowdfunding project isn’t over; its story is beginning again.

Good news arrived 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 doesn’t address the owners much. Instead, it lays out a business-to-business model for Jibo in which the robot becomes more of an enterprise product than a consumer one.
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Jibo will remain operational for the people who already bought it, says Marc Alba, NTT Disruption’s president, and their bonds to their robot demonstrate why NTT wanted to acquire Jibo in the first place.

“What we really loved about Jibo is this capability to create digital embassy with any age, any race, any type of human,” he says.
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