Cult social robot Jibo is being reimagined as a modular AI wearable

Jibo, the social robot with a cult following, is getting a successor, and it’s going in a very different direction to before.

It’s called iKairos, and it embraces the current trend for AI wearables, then makes the resulting product useful at home too.

I was stuck with two viable options for picking the right chatbot on my phone

What is iKairos?

Credit: iKairos

Lingverse’s iKairos is a modular AI device. It can be worn, and then placed on a dock at home, giving it more versatility than a device like the Google Home Speaker, without limiting functionality like an AI wearable such as Friend.

CEO and co-founder of Lingverse, Jiawei Gu, said:

Today, with iKairos, we can finally pick up where the Jibo team left off and deliver on the promise. iKairos continuously observes both you and your surroundings, creating the context that today's AI lacks.

Once the AI understands your life instead of just your prompts, iKairos can begin to act as a personal AI guardian, which is capable of unlocking entirely new experiences and proactively adapts to and works around your lifestyle.

The announcement comes with the closure of pre-A funding round, where Lingverse raised $29 million. Details on what iKairos will look like are slim.

In the teaser images, it appears the wearable will be neck worn, and have a camera. The company says it will handle privacy by adding a physical cover over the lens, so there will never be any question over whether it’s recording or not. At home, the wearable will be attached to a dock, which looks similar to the original Jibo.

For the AI, expect it to provide context-aware advice, and the more it gets to know you, the more it’ll be able to anticipate your needs, ready to give reminders or suggestions.

What’s the connection to Jibo?

Jibo was a ‘social robot’ that launched in 2014, and eventually ceased operation in 2019.

Jiawei Gu was a board member and one of the investors at Jibo, and is using his own company, Lingverse, to continue its legacy, all with the backing of the original Jibo team.

Lingverse says it is using key points it learned from Jibo to create iKairos, such as it being purely a home device, and the limitations of machine learning at the time to create an engaging, collaborative character.

When will you be able to buy iKairos?

Consider this a pre-pre-announcement for iKairos.

The company has opened a waitlist which can be signed up to on its website, and it anticipates pre-orders starting between July and September this year. The price and availability has not been announced.