Sony Aibo Is Back, Bet Big On Cute Robot Dog

Sony is trying to cash in on the emergence of machine intelligence by bringing back its robot dog called Aibo. From the 90s to the late 2000s, it was popular among technophiles and children. On Wednesday, the company unveiled its newest lineup of the mechanical canines and it is as cute as ever. It is really pricey too.

Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai himself did the Tokyo unveiling of Aibo on Wednesday, which is priced at ¥198,000 ($1,740), CNN reports. The cuddly robot canine apparently still comes with all of the features that fans have come to love about it, but it has also been updated with a slew of new features to meet the demands of modern consumers.

For example, the dog comes with an app that also allows it to become a smart speaker. It’s basically an Amazon Echo but considerably more adorable.

Aibo is apparently capable of learning from its owners, being capable of understanding when it is being praised, when it is given simple commands until it finally gets a hang of its owner’s preferences. The dog is also capable of uploading and storing data through its cloud network, which it will then base its personality on. That’s right, each Aibo could have a different personality.

According to the press release by Sony, the robot dog responds best to affection and love, which it will return in kind. This means that how close the dog acts with its owner depends on how it was treated.

“It eventually becomes able to respond to its owners' affection in kind, and when it feels loved, it will display even more love and affection in return, nurturing a bond that only deepens as time goes on,” the press release reads.

Of course, there is also the underlying question of what happens when the dog is mistreated. It’s unlikely to become aggressive, but it does pose an interesting conundrum.