Don't expect a personal robot butler any time soon

Before the Consumer Electronics Show opens to all its attendees, there's a press day in which many of the bigger manufacturers put on elaborate productions to show off their new products, announce new partnerships, and give us a glimpse into their future tech. It helps set the tone for the show and really get people fired up to hit the floor and check out some new gadgets. This year, LG was one of the first companies on the press conference schedule, and one of its marquis demos was a Hub Robot that embodies the company's digital home assistant, CLOi--pronounced like the human name, Chloe. Instead of making LG look like the future of technology, however, this robot served as a good reminder of just how far we are from the autonomous robot butlers we've been promised. The CLOi bot has a vaguely humanoid face and the kind of cloying appeal you'd expect from a Pixar character.