I feel like a new AI pet robot is released every single day. I started to notice them more during 2025, and that is also when I got my first one as a gift from my girlfriend.
In my opinion, small pet robots are the perfect way to get people interested in robotics and LLMs and AI tools has made it easier than ever.
Say ´hello´ to EMO
EMO is a pet robot created by Living.ai that can walk, talk, and play. Recently they added a ChatGPT powered AI talk feature which means that he can now answer almost any question you throw at him.
For me, he turned more into a science project (to the horrors of my girlfriend). He rarely is on with the normal features, but that is okay. I want to understand how he works and how I can change what he can do.
During 2026 I connected with a few likeminded people on Github and on Discord, which turned into EMO-Libre. It's a collection of projects and research on how EMO works to be able to expand on his capabilties.
Notably we have created:
EMO Proxy - Software to look into and modify requests sent between the EMO and Living.ai's servers.
emo-proxy-docker - A docker setup to streamline to usage of EMO Proxy.
EmoProxy WebUI - A simplified Web UI to monitor the Proxy.
and most importantly our documentation that contains information about what is sent and how stuff works.
I am very much looking forward to what the future holds for small pet robots.
Especially MicroDuck which I have preordered and will be recieving during 2027!
