China’s Chery unveils AI companion robot designed to ease loneliness

Chinese automaker Chery has unveiled a toddler-sized humanoid robot designed to provide companionship, assist older people and help children learn, positioning artificial intelligence as a potential answer to loneliness in the home.

Named MoBo, the robot was presented at the Chery Summit in Wuhu, China. Developed by Chery’s robotics division, AiMOGA, it is designed to function as a personal assistant and an emotionally responsive companion, learning its owner’s habits and preferences to tailor its interactions.

“It ends loneliness,” said Yvette Gao, product director of AiMOGA, describing MoBo as a companion designed to offer comfort through everyday interactions.

During a demonstration, the robot was shown reminding older people to take their medication and helping them fall asleep by recounting stories from their past. Its intended role, Gao said, is not to perform dramatic tasks but to offer small, familiar gestures that can make people feel remembered and cared for.

“It does nothing dramatic,” she said. “Just small, warm, everyday things. Someone remembering. Someone caring.”

MoBo is also designed to interact with children, helping them learn languages, practise dancing and engage in playful activities. Its proposed features include waking children in the morning, telling bedtime stories and encouraging social skills such as sharing and apologising.

“Every child deserves someone who is always on their side,” Gao said, describing the robot as a patient and consistent presence in a child’s daily life.

A companion, not a replacement for people

Chery says MoBo is not intended to replace parents, family members or human relationships. However, its emphasis on companionship highlights the company's ambition to bring AI-powered robots into intimate aspects of everyday life, from caring for older relatives to keeping children occupied.

Gao said the robot could offer company when family members are busy or unavailable, while listening patiently to older people who may want to revisit familiar memories.

“Loneliness is not just being alone. It is having no one to tell your day to. It is the feeling that no one is thinking of you. MoBo changes that,” she said.

The promise also raises questions about the growing role of machines in providing emotional support, particularly for people who are isolated or vulnerable. While a robot may offer interaction and assistance, its ability to replicate the depth of human care remains a separate question.

Chery eyes a bigger role for robots

MoBo is part of Chery’s broader plan to expand its robotics business beyond personal companionship. Executive Vice President Zhang Guinbing said the company intends to increase robot production, with future development extending to industrial robots and increasingly sophisticated home assistants.

The company's longer-term vision includes robots capable of cooking, cleaning and shopping for their owners. Guinbing also suggested that the robotics division could eventually grow larger than Chery’s automotive business.

Achieving that ambition, however, will depend partly on whether consumers become comfortable welcoming robots into their homes.

AiMOGA says MoBo will be affordably priced and is being released globally, although the company has not announced specific plans for Australia.

Standing 90 centimetres tall, MoBo has been designed to resemble a young child in size, making it easier for a seated person to embrace the robot.

“That height is not random,” Gao said. “It is roughly the height of a three-year-old and the perfect height to embrace while seated.”

For Chery, the design reflects a broader goal: creating robots that people see not simply as machines, but as familiar presences in their homes. Whether MoBo can deliver on its promise to ease loneliness will depend on how people respond to a companion built around artificial intelligence rather than human connection.