They wag, they purr, they respond to your voice—and they may be collecting your data the whole time. A new wave of AI-powered robot pets is hitting the consumer market, promising the companionship of an animal without the mess or vet bills. But according to reporting by MSN, experts are raising serious flags about what comes packaged alongside the charm.
The two core concerns are privacy and emotional dependency. On the privacy side, these intelligent companions are always-on devices living inside your home. Like smart speakers or connected cameras, they can capture conversations, habits, and behavioral data—though the extent of what any given product collects depends on the manufacturer and is rarely spelled out in plain language for buyers.
The emotional dimension may be the thornier issue. Experts warn that people—particularly children and the elderly—can form genuine bonds with these robotic companions, bonds that may be hard to distinguish from the attachments we form with living animals. That's by design: the more a device feels emotionally real, the more compelling it is as a product. But it also means users may experience real distress if the device breaks, is discontinued, or is updated in ways that change its personality.
The combination creates a feedback loop that consumer advocates and researchers find troubling: a product engineered to be emotionally sticky is also a product that sits in your living room gathering intimate data about your life.
For now, regulation hasn't kept pace with the technology. Most buyers have no easy way to audit what data their robot pet sends home, or to whom it might be sold.
As AI companions move from novelty to mainstream, the question of who these devices ultimately serve—their owners, or the companies behind them—deserves a serious answer before millions of households invite one in.