Meet Jibo, your new robotic roommate

Edward C. Baig | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption SXSW in motion: Timelapse video Behind the scenes timelapse footage of SXSW.

AUSTIN, Texas — Your future robotic roommate was not ready to make the trip to SXSW.

"Jibo is going through the commercialization process right now," said Cynthia Breazeal, the MIT professor and social robotics pioneer who is the driving force behind the 11-inch-tall robot, which could pass for a distant relative to WALL-E.

Breazeal, a keynoter here, is dead serious about Jibo's future as a humanized robotic member of the household, an engaging companion to teach first grade math to your kid, to remind grandma to take her medicine and to make sure you get the groceries you need.

But Jibo is not meant to be a "slave-robot" either — it is not going to go to Safeway for you, much less vacuum the floor. What makes it different from, say, a Roomba or an entertainment-oriented toy robot is, in Breazeal's words, "this notion of platform, taking something from the playbook of the Android and iOS app ecosystems."

Along those lines, she is courting developers to produce apps or "skills," as she calls them, for Jibo. There'll be a Jibo store.

Jibo garnered attention over the summer when the startup Breazeal founded raised about $2.3 million in an Indiegogo campaign, well above her initial goal of $100,000. The discounted crowdfunding price for anyone who pre-ordered Jibo was $499; consumers will pay about $100 more when Jibo becomes available to the general public, likely in the middle of next year.

"It's very important for Jibo to have the right kind of personality that makes people really want to welcome and engage with this kind of technology," Breazeal told USA TODAY.

Jibo promises a sense of humor. With built-in cameras, it can recognize you and learn from you over time. It might ask for your favorite color and factor that in when it presents information.

And Jibo is being designed to recognize critical cues, like whether you're smiling or not. It might use that to decide when to snap a picture of you or other family members.

Jibo will communicate by speech, by making expressive sounds, and by using graphics. There are times you'll touch Jibo to help the robot know if you like something.

"There is learning, there is adaptation, there is personalization, there is perception, there is decision-making, there's communication and there's expression," Breazeal says.

How are we as humans to treat Jibo — as family members, as pets, as something else?"We're still trying to understand this. It's a new thing," Breazeal says. "In some ways, it's sort of like the kinds of relationships you have with a coach or a tutor. Some (relate) to it as an Internet-connected device, a gadget. And also some dimensions of companionship (with an animal)."

Jibo will also have a role in the connected home and move toward a variety of Internet of Things appliances. It is expected to become a health coach, connecting to your Fitbit or Wi-Fi scale. Jibo won't be wearing an Apple Watch. But you may wear the watch to interact with Jibo.

Breazeal is also mindful of the potential scary side of artificial intelligence, highlighted by Elon Musk in January when he donated $10 million to the Future of Life Institute.

"This is a persistent story of any technology," she says. "If it's a technology of high impact, there's always the opportunity to do things that are really wonderful and always the opportunity that it's going to be abused or misused on some way."

One of the concerns raised is the idea that a robot is going to replace a health care professional. "Historically when people think about robots and automation it's been about taking away human jobs," Breazeal says. "There's a more enlightened view now of robotics, they're called co-bots. The idea is about partnership — how do humans and robots work together as a team."

Breazeal expects you to like your new roommate: "The human-robot relationship is going to be different than the human-human, human-technology or human-dog relationships. But they're going to take on attributes of all those categories and maybe something totally new. People will actually delight in their Jibo."