Think Robotic Personal Assistants Lack Personality? Check Out Olly

While we’ve seen leaps and bounds recently in the capabilities of personal assistant AIs and robots, they still seem to lack personality. Sure, you can ask Siri silly questions or play Jeopardy with Alexa, but if they were actual people, would you ever want to spend time with them? Where are the Rosies and the Robbies, the Benders and the Marvins? Emotech, a London-based robotics startup, thinks it has finally come up with that robotic personal assistant that actually has a personality.

Olly promises to be the first personal assistant with an AI that interacts with you like a human would. It uses a pair of cameras and computer vision to detect you, your moods, and your activities, and responds accordingly. Olly might suggest music for you based on what you’re doing, or provide encouragement for your workout (or to simply get out of bed). Over time, Olly is designed to learn how best to work for you.

Of course, Olly can also do the things most smart home assistants can do. It can adjust your thermostat, schedule an appointment on your calendar, or adjust the lighting in your room. As Olly learns about your preferences and behaviors, it will start to anticipate your needs. For instance, if every time you arrive home from work you ask Olly to turn on the heat, it will eventually learn to do so without having to be told.

Olly is currently in the crowdfunding stage on Indiegogo, and has already surpassed the original goal of $100,000. The campaign still has another month left, so there is plenty of time to get in on the Indiegogo specials. The first round of orders are expected to ship in March of 2018.