For the past few years, AI has slowly integrated itself into our daily life. Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa are just some of the digital voice assistants we currently have that make use of AI. While we do get through simple tasks with them like hands-free phone calling, scheduling, or even asking them occasional self-affirming questions, there’s still a bit of disconnect in terms of interaction.
There are AI robots out there that try to fill in that gap and do more than just complete tasks. Some are geared towards keeping people company or even teaching children how to code. However, this isn’t nearly as enough. People want to have something to organically interact with that can empathize with them. This is where Kiki comes in.
Meet Kiki
The creators over at Zoetic AI felt that people need to have companions that can understand and grow with them. Thus, Kiki was born. This cute AI robot is basically designed like a pet that would learn who you are based on your interactions with it.
Kiki’s design includes a display monitor to show its expressive eyes and a high-definition camera as a nose to recognize you with. It also will be able to hear you even though you’re not in the room with its omni-directional hearing. Finally, it has touch sensors everywhere so you can actually pet it and give it belly rubs.
Aside from all of these, the AI Personality Engine powers Kiki to learn from its interactions with you. These interactions will inform how it will gradually develop. If you shower it with love, it will learn to love you more. Of course, being mean would only make it ignore you.
It can also learn when it meets others like it. Kiki can exchange information via Bluetooth and interact with another Kiki.
The whole premise of Kiki is from the idea of wanting to have a companion that people can emotionally connect to and love. What better way to do that than a pet right? Who knows, maybe you can learn something from it too. If you’re interested, you can back Kiki up over at Kickstarter.
YouTube: Meet Kiki: Your New AI Robot Sidekick
Photo credits: All images used are owned by Zoetic and were provided for press usage.
