Page 24 - aruba-today-20190502

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Thursday 2 May 2019
Dreams of ubiquitous social robots still aren't coming true

By MATT O'BRIEN He and other company
AP Technology Writer leaders declined comment
Hopes that the tech indus- Tuesday, but a spokesman
try was on the cusp of rolling said the company was "ex-
personal robots into homes ploring all options to keep
are dimming now that sev- our products functioning
eral once-promising con- and cloud services run-
sumer robotics companies ning."
have shut down. The company reported
The latest casualty was about $100 million in annu-
San Francisco startup Anki, al revenue in 2017, and as
maker of the playful toy ro- of last year had sold more
bot Cozmo, which upon its than 1.5 million products,
release in 2016 seemed like including its robots and the
the start of a new wave of car-racing game Over-
sociable machines. drive.
That dream ended this "It does feel a little devas-
week when Anki CEO and tating," said Schaefer, who
co-founder Boris Sofman this week started the Twit-
gathered many of the ter hashtag #SaveAnki in
company's nearly 200 em- hopes that a bigger tech
ployees to deliver the news company or toy maker
that all of them would be might acquire it. "Anki took
laid off Wednesday. The In this July 30, 2018, file photo, Anki Inc. CEO Boris Sofman holds Vector, the company's new home steps toward robotics that
bad news soon spread to robot, in New York. In this July 30, 2018, file photo, Anki Inc. CEO Boris Sofman holds Vector, the other companies haven't
fans and owners of Cozmo company's new home robot, in New York. tried yet."
and its newer cousin Vec- Associated Press Tech industry analyst Caro-
tor, unveiled last year in an lina Milanesi was also sad-
effort to appeal to grown- a string of failed efforts to able to compete with im- cal robots, with a body to dened by Anki's demise,
ups. launch life-like robots into mobile smart speakers do something, are not re- but a premonition of the
"Cozmo was the first robot the market. Boston-based made by Amazon, Apple ally catching up." They cost company's fate was the
that felt almost alive," said Jibo, founded by one of the and Google, which cost too much for the marginal Cozmo sitting idly on her
David Schaefer, a pro- pioneers of social robotics, less than their more physi- service they offer, he said. daughter's nightstand for
grammer and robot enthu- went out of business less cally complex robotic Still, Anki got farther than the past six months. The
siast in Portland, Oregon, than a year after its curvy counterparts but are pow- most of its robotics hard- toy market is unforgiving,
who was so enamored with talking speaker made the ered by ever-improving ware peers in appealing to and Anki may have been
the feisty machine that he cover of Time Magazine's artificial-intelligence sys- the masses with an emo- unable to extend its reach
created a "Life with Coz- "best inventions" edition. tems that serve most users' tionally intelligent machine beyond it, she said.
mo" channel on YouTube Another startup, California- needs. that cost hundreds of dol- "There's hype at the begin-
that's attracted millions of based Mayfield Robotics, "AI without a body has lars less than Jibo, Kuri or ning, you have very en-
viewers. One of the most last year stopped manu- caught on really well," said Sony's robotic dog Aibo. gaged kids, and then they
popular videos, called "Un- facturing Kuri, a camera- Yan Fossat, head of the "You cannot sell a robot move onto something else,"
requited Love ," documents equipped machine mar- research lab at Toronto- for $800 or $1,000 that has Milanesi said. "Kids grow up.
Cozmo's awkward interac- keted as a watchful roving based Klick Health, which capabilities of less than an She's now 11 and 'Fortnite'
tions with a guinea pig. nanny. is exploring social robotics Alexa," Sofman told The is everything that matters to
Anki's demise was part of None of them have been in the medical field. "Physi- Associated Press last year. her in life."q
Slowing digital-ad growth

could force change on Google

of analyst expectations. flected concerns of grow- starting to sputter. Some
That dip could shave more ing competition on a con- analysts suggested it's a
than $65 billion from Alpha- ference call with analysts signal that Google might
bet's market value if it holds Monday, instead suggest- need to diversify its business
when the markets open ing that fluctuating curren- more quickly.
Tuesday. cy rates and changes to "Does this put more pres-
Google's advertising rev- Google ad products during sure on Google to make
enue, its key moneymak- the quarter led to the slow- more aggressive bets on
This Wednesday, April 26, 2017, file photo shows the Google mo-
bile phone icon, in Philadelphia. er, grew by 15 percent to down. The online-ad indus- cloud?" asked Wedbush
Associated Press $30.7 billion — slower than try is also still in a yearslong Securities analyst Dan Ives.
investors had hoped. Its shift to phone and tablet Google executives high-
By RACHEL LERMAN that competitors may be digital-ad rivals Facebook ads and away from ones lighted the company's
AP Technology Writer nipping at its heels. and Amazon, meanwhile, aimed at desktop users. cloud-computing business
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Investors pushed down the both reported strong earn- Ads for mobile devices as one of its fastest grow-
While Google has domi- stock of Google's parent ings last week, adding to bring in less money. ing segments during the
nated the online ad market company, Alphabet, more the investor surprise when Still, the results sparked Monday call. But the cloud
for almost the entirety of its than 7% in after-hours trad- Alphabet stumbled despite concerns that Google's currently accounts for only
existence, its first quarter ing Monday after it report- a strong economy. enormously profitable ad- a small slice of Alphabet's
earnings report suggests ed revenue that fell short Alphabet executives de- vertising machine might be overall revenue.q