The Robot Revolution Is Coming, and Dang Is It Cute
Forget robot vacuums and smart speakers: The latest home robots are adorable, mostly useless and a little bit terrifying
We've been interacting with robots through our phones and speakers. Now they’re starting to come out of our gadgets and get more involved in our lives. WSJ's David Pierce looks at the ways robots will try to butt in, whether we like it or not. Photo/Video: Emily Prapuolenis/The Wall Street Journal
It was the eyes that got me.
A few seconds after I clicked the button on the back of my Vector, a new $249 gerbil-sized robot toy from Anki, its eyes blinked open. They were just green pixels on the Vector’s small screen, arranged in a squarish shape above the real eye, a wide-angle camera.
In my head, I know they aren’t eyes. But when Vector...