Disobedient Robot Derails LG Event

LG’s CLOi robot got a case of stage fright. The adorable white, curvy CLOi, who stands less than a foot tall with a black circular face and glowing blue eyes, is supposed to act like the hub of your smart home. You can ask it to tweak the settings of your washing machines or pull up the recipe from your smart refrigerator.

At least, that was supposed to be the case during a live demonstration at CES 2018 an ongoing tech trade show (Jan. 7-12) at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, CNet reported.

But when David VanderWaal, vice president of marketing for LG Electronics US branch, asked CLOi for the ideal washing machine setting, he was met with silence. Once again, when standing next to an LG smart refrigerator, VanderWaal asked CLOi for a recipe and he got nothing.

CLOi and the growing family of smart appliances like air purifiers, refrigerators and washing machines, represent LG’s push to invest in robotics and artificial intelligence. LG on Monday unveiled the ThinQ platform for artificial intelligence, which is supposed to enable devices to learn your preferences and automatically change their settings. LG also showed off three concept robots that work as servers, porters and shopping carts.