Apple is developing its first robot, a nine-inch screen on a swivelling robotic arm that resembles the Pixar lamp, according to a report today from The Information’s Aaron Tilley.
The device, code-named J595, has been in development since 2019. It was initially conceived for video calls, with the arm allowing it to follow a person around a room, and later grew into an AI project that could respond to its surroundings on its own, such as turning on lights or shooing a cat off a table. Apple has designed the robot to avoid hitting objects.
Much of the hardware has been finished for about two years, the report says, but the software team has struggled to keep pace. The same report says Apple’s new chief executive, John Ternus, wants the company to pursue robots seriously, and that the hardware team behind J595 has pushed to accelerate the project.
Nothing about the project is confirmed. No launch timeline or pricing has been reported, and whether J595 will ever reach the market as a consumer product is unclear. Earlier reporting described Apple’s plans for a robotic-arm HomeView with voice-activated swivelling.