TOKYO – SoftBank announced Tuesday (June 29) that production of its humanoid robot Pepper has been halted, seven years after the company launched the characteristic chatty white android to considerable fanfare. Pepper robots, who greet customers at Japanese and international stores and hotels, have become a symbol of SoftBank’s policy of investing heavily in new technologies, including artificial intelligence.
The tiny robot, which costs 198,000 yen (US$1,790) plus rental fees, has also lately been employed to help patients with mild symptoms cope with the loneliness of coronavirus quarantine in Japanese hotels.
However, a spokesperson for the company’s robots unit told AFP on Tuesday that production had been halted due to an inventory backlog.
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“We’re temporarily pausing Pepper production, but we’re ready to resume at any time depending on inventory levels,” she explained. “Pepper is mostly a rental service, and you don’t require a large number of new units.”
According to the spokeswoman, the company does not disclose the number of gadgets it has sold or rented.
Pepper was lauded as a sign of Softbank’s commitment to lead in artificial intelligence when it was unveiled in 2014. It was promoted as a “new species” of robot capable of understanding fundamental emotions like as happy and sadness by gazing at people’s faces.
The corporation was in talks with its European robots unit, which is based in Paris and employs around 330 employees, about possible job cuts, according to the spokesperson.
“We are discussing about the cuts,” she said, adding that the planned decrease was “part of our usual efforts to optimize our operations” and was not directly tied to the suspension of Pepper production.
SoftBank Group, which has invested in some of Silicon Valley’s biggest names and hottest new companies, recorded the largest yearly net profit for a Japanese company in May, enjoying the benefits of a year-long tech rally.
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