Colin Angle Unveils 2027 AI Pet, Drawing Lukewarm Response Over Vague Pitch

1 articles · Updated · Salon · May 23

At a Wall Street Journal conference this month, Colin Angle showed off The Familiar—an AI domestic companion he said could reach market in 2027—but the debut landed coolly.
Angle pitched the device as a soft, responsive answer to loneliness, yet offered few concrete details on what it actually does beyond learning owners’ habits and developing a personality.
That vagueness extended to basics: he disclosed no price, only said ownership would resemble the cost of a regular pet, and gave little clarity on cameras, microphones, data use or privacy safeguards.
The skepticism lands amid a broader push into physical AI and home robots, where consumer trust has already been weakened by overhyped capabilities, uncanny designs and smart-device data collection concerns.

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