The verdict is still out on Sony Corp.’s new pet dog ‘Aibo,’ but that’s not stopping the company from planning a deeper push into robotics. The mechanical mutt, which goes on sale in Japan on Thursday, is just the beginning of the Tokyo-based company’s return to robotics, chief executive officer Kazuo Hirai told Bloomberg TV. While Aibo is primarily a toy, its artificial-intelligence capabilities and robotic architecture can be used to create machines for various service fields, he said.
“The technology we incorporated into Aibo -- A.I., robotics, and that combination — in different form-factors can manifest itself in other robots that can be a part of transportation, education, health care,” Hirai told Bloomberg’s Emily Chang. “So it has a lot of different applications beyond just being an entertainment robot.”

The verdict is still out on Sony Corp.’s new pet dog ‘Aibo,’ but that’s not stopping the company from planning a deeper push into robotics. The mechanical mutt, which goes on sale in Japan on Thursday, is just the beginning of the Tokyo-based company’s return to robotics, chief executive officer Kazuo Hirai told Bloomberg TV. While Aibo is primarily a toy, its artificial-intelligence capabilities and robotic architecture can be used to create machines for various service fields, he said.
“The technology we incorporated into Aibo -- A.I., robotics, and that combination — in different form-factors can manifest itself in other robots that can be a part of transportation, education, health care,” Hirai told Bloomberg’s Emily Chang. “So it has a lot of different applications beyond just being an entertainment robot.”