The servers running Jibo, a connected home robot, are about to be shut down, and the robot has started informing its owners with a bittersweet message. Reporter Dylan Martin tweeted a video showing Jibo saying that its functions will soon be “limited,” but it “really enjoyed our time together.”
Dying social robot Jibo goes out with a song and a dance
RIP, Jibo
RIP, Jibo
Jibo, Inc.
“Thank you very, very much for having me around,” Jibo says. “Maybe someday, when robots are more advanced than today, and everyone has them in their homes, you can tell yours that I said ‘hello.’”
Jibo then proceeds to dance.
Jibo raised almost $73 million in venture capital funding, according to Crunchbase, and it raised more than $3 million through a 2014 Indiegogo campaign to launch the robot. In 2017, Jibo began shipping units to the public for $899. By that time, Amazon’s smart Alexa assistant had already started taking over. Late last year, The Robot Report reported that Jibo sold all of its intellectual property to SQN Venture Partners.
The robot’s message tells owners to go to the Jibo website for more information on the shutdown, but Jibo’s website appears to be mostly shut down itself, with broken links and videos.
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