Still, it’s not hard to look at Ballie and imagine a world of potential. Virtual assistants are helpful at controlling your various smart home gizmos, but unless every room in your home is kitted out with smart speakers listening for commands, there will be gaps in that AI-driven experience. By weaving some level of intelligence into a mobile machine that doesn’t seem all that intrusive — Ballie is about the size of a large grapefruit — Samsung is poised to make sure a smart assistant is never too far away. That’s a powerful thing, made even more potent by the fact that Ballie could have something approaching a personality. We couldn’t hear it ourselves over the din of the convention center, but the Ballie demo video from last night’s keynote suggests it might make some cutesy, R2-D2-esque chirps that elevate it beyond just a fancy Sphero.
I fully expect that Ballie will continue to raise more questions before we get any concrete answers, but one thing does seem pretty clear right now: It’s a whole lot better than the total non-starter of a rolling robot-friend LG showed off at a trade show a few years ago.
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