SHENZHEN, CHINA - 1 September 2025 - Yonbo, the AI-powered companion robot designed for families has officially launched on 30 August 2025. The announcement comes amid a growing global debate over how artificial intelligence should shape children's daily lives-whether as a tool for shared learning or a new source of risk.

The company revealed the date following the viral momentum of a YouTube teaser video-"This Chinese Robot Will End Your Kids' Screen Addiction"-which has drawn tens of thousands of views and strong engagement in the past week, highlighting public curiosity about alternatives to passive screen time.

AI Companions Enter the Living Room

For years, parents and pediatricians in the United States have grappled with the "screen time" question. The American Academy of Pediatrics now emphasizes not only how long children spend with technology, but also how and with whom.

AI robots represent a new category: instead of delivering content on flat screens, they hold conversations, remember details, and display expressive emotions. Industry analysts say this shift could transform the family living room into a new frontier for AI.

Yet the path has not been smooth. Embodied Inc.'s well-known child companion robot Moxie shut down abruptly in 2024 when its servers went offline, leaving families with silent devices and raising concerns about sustainability, privacy, and emotional fallout when "friends" disappear.

Yonbo's AI-Powered Companion Robot features:

Interactive, natural dialogue: Conversations can be interrupted mid-sentence, mimicking real family speech patterns.

Emotion recognition: Yonbo responds to children's moods, aiming to support empathy and emotional development.

Parental oversight: A dedicated app offers dashboards for monitoring and control, designed to align with tightening privacy regulations such as the FTC's upcoming updates to COPPA.

Offline resilience: Core functions are designed to remain available even without continuous cloud access—a direct response to industry lessons learned from the Moxie shutdown.

Launch Details

Official launch date: 30 August 2025

Availability: Pre-orders and demonstrations will open via Yonbo's website and partner retailers.

Pre-launch buzz: Viral YouTube traction has already positioned Yonbo as a candidate to redefine how families think about AI in the home.

Industry and Policy Implications

Regulators and experts caution that enthusiasm for AI companions must be balanced by safeguards. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is actively updating children's online privacy protections to prevent misuse of data. Pediatric researchers stress that co-use matters most: robots should not be digital babysitters but tools for shared play and learning.

If companies like Yonbo can deliver transparency, sustainability, and family-centered design, they may help AI companions shift from a curiosity into a credible new category of home technology.

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