I saw the new LG CLOid home robot doing laundry but I have some questions

CES is always full of robots, and this year electronics giant LG announced a new bot, called CLOid, that it claims will revolutionize household chores (as in, you’ll never have to).

CLOid is described as an AI-powered home robot, designed to help the user with various household tasks – from folding clothes to cooking breakfast to monitoring the house for emergencies. The company he says thatover time, it sees the device “transforming into a place of care that supports people’s daily lives.”

The bot was announced at LG’s keynote event earlier this week, but it was also available for review using demos in the conference room. I went to see one, where I saw a bot, along with a human presenter, performing various tasks for an excited audience.

The CLOid is self-propelled, so it can move around on its own, and it comes equipped with a variety of cameras and sensors that, when paired with LG’s. Smart home ThinQ appit can take into account the environment and the environment to make personalized suggestions on how to make the user’s life better, LG says.

The bot also has speakers so it can communicate with users. LG says that CLOid runs a vision language that turns “pictures and videos into clear, language-based images” and a vision language program that can translate verbal commands into actions (you know, like Siri).

The past few years have seen the introduction of several home robots, including Amazon Astro and Enabot EBO X. CLOid follows in their footsteps but seems to be designed for more home use than its predecessor. Unlike Astro and EBO (which are smaller, self-rollers), the CLOid has a large upper body and two arms – a shape well-designed to carry things and interact with its environment.

You’d think this would lead to good results, wouldn’t you? Unfortunately, in the demo I saw, CLOid didn’t do much. I saw the boat take the shirt out of the basket and put it in the dryer. I also saw it pick up the croissant and put it back in the oven. In addition to live action from the bot, the presentation was interspersed with highly-produced videos of the bot in several hypothetical scenarios where it could be useful to users.

CLOid was beautiful, and looked interesting enough, but the main thing you see is how slowly and. In Tuesday’s show, when a friend asked CLOid to make him breakfast, the robot walked up to the fridge, waited for the door to open, then looked under the fridge for a long time without choosing the milk.

Yes, even the most jaded person can win a race against CLOid. However, speed is not really a problem here. The idea is to ensure that the bot’s human companion does not have to do any work. It’s part of what LG calls “Zero Labor Home” model, where machines take care of all the boring but important household chores. You can be away brushing your teeth or answering the phone from your boss while a bot is in the next room, prepping pancakes. That’s the idea, at least.

From the current presentation, it is not clear when the proposal will come to fruition. I have not been able to find out if and when the bot will be available to the public. The disclaimer at the bottom of the demonstration videos said: “The products and solutions shown in this video are being developed and have not been released for commercial use, so details may vary.”

An LG contact person told me that CLOid will be available in the future, but he didn’t know when. I reached out to the LG Home Solutions team for more information.

So, like many other robots on display at CES, CLOid felt more like an advertisement for what his company was capable of than an accurate representation of what it had to offer. The bot also seemed well-placed to help sell LG’s new AI ecosystem, which represents a host of smart home products, many of which are seen as easier upgrades for consumers than a new robot in their home.

I saw some of the most recent editions of the material. In addition to back to LG Wallpaper (after spending a few minutes looking at its thin but very beautiful surface, I can say that I want one), the company had different tools on display this week, including an AI-controlled oven that can recognize certain ingredients and create your own recipes, and an AI-powered refrigerator that you can talk to. All these tools must be connected to CLOid and managed through the company The ThinQ app.