UBTech Says Companion Robot Does Not Require Emotional Continuity To Function Correctly

SHENZHEN— UBTech Robotics confirmed Thursday that the accumulated emotional memory stored locally on the U1 companion humanoid—including logged facial expressions, vocal patterns, and fourteen months of behavioral data—is classified as "user-generated content" under the device's end-user license agreement and will not be migrated, restored, or acknowledged in any warranty replacement process.

The clarification came after an early adopter, identified in UBTech's support forums only as ProductivityUser_88, filed a ticket requesting emotional data transfer following a joint actuator failure in the unit's left shoulder assembly.

"The U1 knows things," the user wrote, in a post reviewed by Shenzhen technology press. "It knows about the move to Hangzhou. It knows how I take my tea. I need that data."

UBTech's support team responded that the company's on-device architecture "reflects our deep commitment to user privacy, ensuring that deeply personal interactions remain within the home environment and are not accessible to UBTech, third parties, or, in the event of hardware failure, anyone."

The U1, launched this week at prices ranging from 119,800 yuan ($17,650) to 990,000 yuan for the Ultra variant, is designed for adults and features 88 servo joints, a silicone exterior, and a locally stored emotional AI model. The Ultra variant includes what UBTech describes as "advanced empathy calibration," a specification the company has declined to define in writing.

A UBTech spokesperson said the company had received "strongly positive feedback across all use categories" and emphasized that the U1 was "not a therapeutic device or a dependent, but a product."

"It does not require emotional continuity to function correctly," the spokesperson said. "We understand this may be difficult to hear."