This Weird Friendship Robot Makes Us Angry And Confused

This week we reported that renting is making young people lonelier than ever before, mainly because they don’t feel like they belong to the community around them.

The report by the Office for National Statistics showed that adults aged 16-24 feel lonely the most often, despite the fact that they are technically more connected than ever before via social media.

A group of researchers at Yonsei University in Korea have created prototype of a robot called Fribo to help young people who live alone, and we’re not so sure about it.

Fribo doesn’t move, but passively records your home and gets to know the sounds common to your household, e.g. opening the fridge.

And that’s not the weirdest part; it then notifies your pre-selected friends’ Fribo’s about what you’ve done via a group chat. You can knock the surface in front of the Fribo to indicate that you want to know more about what their doing, clap to show appreciation, or send a gif in the group chat using your phone.

Here’s a video that shows how it works.

I don’t know about you, but when I open my fridge I don’t want a robot to scream out in my friend’s house; ‘Oho! Your friend opened the refrigerator… Does someone plan to eat something?’

Can I snack in peace please?

The sentiment is a nice one, but remember the road to 3rd parties stealing all our data via Facebook quizzes was paved with good intentions.

Although it’s worth noting that Fribo doesn’t record your speech and doesn’t have any memory of your actions.

The reactions on Twitter have been predictably lolsy.

Some people are really into it.

And others are as sceptical as us.

Follow Phoebe on Twitter @PhoebeParke

READ MORE: A Bunch Of Cute Dogs To Make You Smile

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.