EMO: the AI desk pet whose Kickstarter was deleted and whose maker was sued

A desk robot that passed $50,000 in about half an hour

EMO is a desktop AI pet made by Living.AI. On 26 November 2020 it opened pre-orders on Kickstarter at $129 with a smart light included, and passed its $50,000 goal in about half an hour. Its face is a display on the front, and it gets around a desk on two short legs. The company says it has more than 1,000 expressions and movements, four microphones, a camera and a touch sensor on the head. The camera can recognize up to 10 people, and sensors in its feet keep it from falling off the desk. It dances to music and charges wirelessly on a skateboard-shaped base.

A deleted Kickstarter and a lawsuit that ended in 2024

Kicktraq’s record shows the campaign ran 35 days, from 26 November to 31 December, and raised $347,996 from 2,126 backers. That page now shows the project as deleted. We could not confirm why the campaign disappeared. A comment in December 2020 on a robot blog said there was an intellectual property dispute. In April 2022 the law firm Blank Rome reported that Digital Dream Labs (DDL) had sued Living.AI in federal court in western Pennsylvania, alleging that EMO infringed its copyrights in Cozmo and Vector, and that the case was pending. USA Herald reported in April 2024 that both sides agreed to drop all claims and the court dismissed the case. The terms were not disclosed. EMO kept selling in the meantime. In November 2022 the company launched EMO Go Home, a bundle with a Home Station that lets the robot return to charge itself, for $369. A white EMO White followed in April 2025.

Cuteness covers the shortcomings

A blogger who ordered EMO in April 2022 received it about 20 days later. He found its animations more varied than Vector’s and its app far ahead of Vector’s. Voice recognition, he wrote, “was … well … bad,” and responses were slower. Still, “the cuteness helps with the shortcomings.” He noted that the robot is cloud-connected and suggested turning off its microphone and camera when not in use. According to the company’s own guide, voice commands stop working until Wi-Fi returns if the connection drops. In January 2026 a post on the company forum described a 13-month-old EMO that stopped responding after a popping sound from its speaker.

How long does cuteness last on a server?

Like Jibo, EMO is a home social robot that depends on an internet connection. Unlike Jibo, it is still on sale and the line keeps growing. It kept selling after its Kickstarter was deleted and after a lawsuit, and the company has widened its use by adding hardware such as the Home Station. What we could not find in public material is which functions live in the cloud, and what would remain if the company shut its service down.

How long can a desk keep a robot that is cute but lacks features?

What we haven’t confirmed

• Why the Kickstarter campaign was deleted, and whether backers received their units
• How many EMO units have been sold, and when general sales began
• Size and battery life
• What functions remain on the robot if its servers are shut down