■Nathan Shiga: December 7

Trailing way behind the US and China in IT businesses, Japan is finally back on her knees with Sony, the one-time pioneer in precision products, now coming back to the stage with AI robots.

Sony has come back with that cool, legged robot Aibo after a 12-year silence. The doggy robot Aibo returned this November fully equipped with AI
techs in an entirely new dimension. He now has a camera and sensor that readily recognizes parties in sight and can be friendly or hostile depending on how he ‘feels’.

The new-generation Aibo is the culmination of Japan’s exclusive precision technology all in one. He is built of some 4000 parts developed out of Sony’s years-old knowhow acquired in the process of manufacturing Walkman, Video Camera, etc.

Aibo is more than an electronic pet; he has capacities to utilize the visual and audio data in human living space into business scenes. Sony is aware of certain privacy drawbacks and plans to apply Aibo’s data-collecting functions in the actual living space only to those customers who consent to such privacy implications.

Sony contemplates possible applications of Aibo in the areas of care-taking. President Kazuo Hirai adds:

“On top of all that, we picture Aibo in entertainment scenes and, needless to say, in the area of logistics and factory automation.

“We are all out to manufacture robots worthy of our company name.”

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