LG unveils Google’s generative AI-powered robot CLOi

LG Electronics Inc. on Thursday unveiled its service robot CLOi GuideBot powered by Google’s multimodal AI model Gemini to foray into the generative AI robot market.

At the Google Cloud Summit Seoul 2024 held in South Korea's capital, the home appliance maker demonstrated the latest model of CLOi GuideBot. This time, it came with Gemini AI features.

It is LG's first generative AI-enabled robot, also marking its first collaboration with Google in developing robots.

CLOi GuideBot, to be used at at airports, hospitals, restaurants and smart factories, will hit the market later this year, LG said. 

Gemini is Google's AI chatbot released at the end of last year to match OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It features multimodality performance that receives commands in various ways, from text to voice, image and coding.

Thanks to Gemini, CLOi has improved its communication capability. It gives more natural and accurate answers even to unexpected questions, while creating desired photo background images with voice commands.

LG will upgrade the robot's existing models through wireless software to add AI features.

“CLOi embodies our AI vision of Affectionate Intelligence,” LG said in a statement, adding that it believes that robots will evolve to perform more creative and complex tasks along with generative AI.

Service robots require advanced AI technology and know-how. They need to be in close contact with customers, analyze various questions and the surrounding environment on their own to respond in real time.

The global AI robot market is forecast to grow at an annual average rate of 25% to $64.35 billion by 2030, according to market intelligence firm Statista.

Robots are among LG Electronics’ new growth pillars as the company aims to transform from a traditional home appliance maker into a platform-based tech giant with a focus on business-to-business services.

Write to Eui-Myung Park at uimyung@hankyung.com

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.