Meet ‘Fuzozo,’ the AI emotional companion debuting at CES 2026

There is something beautifully ironic about creating an AI companion that looks almost identical to a Tribble.

The iconic alien from Star Trek made its television debut in the 1967 episode "The Trouble with Tribbles," in which these tiny, fluffy balls quickly turned from "adorable alien that purrs" into "really annoying invasive nuisance."

Nearly six decades later, enter: the Fuzozo. This AI emotional companion that looks remarkably similar to the Star Trek alien is debuting at CES 2026. The Fuzozo recognizes its owner and responds when the owner talks to it. It purrs when you pet it, moves closer to you when you're sitting on the couch, and waits for you by the door when you're gone. One review of the previous model says it "feels alive."

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According to Forbes, agentic and physical AI, like the Fuzozo, is a potential multi-trillion-dollar industry, so it's no surprise that the emotional companion is going to be a highly anticipated drop at the upcoming CES. Oftentimes, AI companions are stuck in a users' home, because without WiFi, they're effectively useless.

"True companionship should follow you everywhere," reads a press release from Tuya Smart, which launched the companion along with Robopoet. "The golden era of AI companions will arrive when they become as always connected and mobile as your smartphone."

The Fuzozo isn't the only, or first, AI companion to pull from mobile connections. The much-disputed AI companion and wearable called "Friend" also works off of an internet connection via your phone's WiFi or cellular data to function. This seems to me like a combination of the Friend and a Labubu.

"We chose to partner with Tuya Smart on the cellular edition of Fuzozo because of Tuya's robust global cloud service capabilities, which ensure stable, seamless emotional companionship," Joe Sun, the CEO of Robopoet, said in the press release. "This partnership enables us to concentrate on advancing core innovations in emotional interaction and delivering distinctive AI companion experience to users around the world."

An image in the press release shows a partial look at the new generation of Fuzozo AI companions.