Living.AI

Living.AI is a Chinese consumer electronics maker that built its recognition around a single product: EMO, a small desktop robot that, instead of a physical head and eyes, has a screen with animated expressions. EMO was shown in January 2021 and reached sale in January 2022. We do not know the company's founding year, the city of its headquarters, any funding data or the number of units sold, because the sources do not give them. The only thing that can be documented, apart from the existence of the product itself, is its availability for sale. The company sells directly through its own shop and through Amazon and eBay. For the reader this is an important difference from brands built on a network of local distributors: here a purchase is in practice an order from abroad. Keep this in mind when comparing prices. The scarcity of company data does not mean the product is bad, only that it is hard to judge the company's stability and the length of support for the device. We write about the whole category at greater length in home robots, and about home uses in homes.

In the catalogue Living.AI has one model: EMO. The basic version costs 279 dollars, and the white variant is 10 dollars more. The "EMO Go Home" edition with an autonomous docking station, thanks to which the robot returns to charge on its own, costs 369 dollars, or 379 dollars in white. At a rate of about 3.8762 zloty to the dollar this comes to roughly 1,080 zloty for the basic version and from 1,430 to 1,469 zloty for Go Home, though the manufacturer itself does not state prices in zloty. The device has a camera and "personality development" functions, but the technical specification is sparse: there is no data on weight, dimensions or battery life. Because the robot has a camera, it is worth reading “Data Security: Robots with Cameras and the GDPR” before buying. The design is geared to emotional bonding, not utility, and is addressed to people who want a companion on the desk rather than a home security system. The further parameters missing here have to be checked on the manufacturer's website, preferably just before buying, because dollar prices and accessory sets may change.

EMO targets a segment similar to Sony aibo ERS-1000, only far cheaper and in a desktop form. The direct competitor in the catalogue is Loona Petbot from KEYi Technology, a companion robot on wheels that, unlike EMO, has confirmed availability in Polish shops. Indirectly EMO also competes with the pet cameras Enabot EBO Air 2 and Enabot EBO SE from Enabot. While those emphasise home monitoring and play with real animals, EMO bets on expressions and "personality", not surveillance. The small Eilik also fits in the same niche. All these models belong to the category of home entertainment robots. We have no data on market share or sales, so we do not judge who is winning. We only know that EMO has a simple, recognisable idea and a modest price, and that its weakness is the lack of local support in Poland.

The sources confirm no Polish seller or authorised distributor of EMO, so in practice a purchase means importing and having no local warranty. The robot is available in the Living.AI shop, on Amazon and on eBay. By comparison Loona from KEYi Tech has Polish sellers in mass-market channels. When buying EMO from abroad one must take into account shipping costs and possible customs charges, whose amounts are not given, and also that in case of failure the contact with service will be foreign. For such a purchase, reading “Data Security: Robots with Cameras and the GDPR” helps if the robot is to stand in a child's room.

EMO is an agreeable desktop gadget, not a robot for work, and that is how it should be judged. The strong side is the affordable price and the recognisable expressions. The weak side is the lack of a Polish seller, the sparse specification and little information about the company. If someone wants to buy such a companion in Poland, it is simpler to choose a product with a local warranty, and to treat EMO as an imported curiosity until an official seller appears.