Lingverse, formerly known as Ling AI, has unveiled the iKairos, a wearable AI device it describes as a spiritual successor to Jibo, the endearing but short-lived social robot launched in 2014. Rather than reviving Jibo's charm as a stationary companion robot, the iKairos is pitched as a camera-equipped gadget that observes its wearer and surroundings before turning daily moments into AI-generated images, raising questions about whether this genuinely honours Jibo's original vision or simply borrows its name for a very different product.

The device can be worn as a pendant, clipped to clothing, or placed in a table mount reminiscent of Jibo's fixed position, and is expected to cost between $199 and $249, likely alongside a subscription for additional AI features. Lingverse says it has raised $29 million and holds some of Jibo's patents, though not the brand's intellectual property, and its CEO Jiawei Gu was formerly a Jibo board member. The company markets iKairos as an "AI journal" that watches for meaningful moments and turns them into a daily AI-generated visual reflection, though specifics of its functionality remain vague and the sample imagery has drawn criticism for looking like low-quality "AI slop".