Different strokes My strange and emotional week with an AI pet

Moflin can develop a personality and build a rapport with its owner - and doesn't need food or exercise. But is it comforting or alienating?

- Justin McCurry

It looks faintly like one half of a small pair of very fluffy slippers. It squeaks and wriggles and nestles in the palm of my hand, black eyes hidden beneath a mop of silvery-white fur. It doesn't need to be fed or walked and it doesn't use a litter tray; it's guaranteed not to leave "gifts" on my doorstep. Which is just as well, as Moflin is about to become my pet.

Before I am entrusted with the welfare of Japan's latest AI companion robot, I meet its developers at the Tokyo headquarters of Casio, the consumer electronics firm that launched it commercially this month, priced at 59,400 yen ($380). "Moflin's role is to build relationships with humans," says Casio's Erina Ichikawa. I have just a week to establish a rapport with mine.

Developed with the Tokyo-based design and innovation firm Vanguard Industries, Moflin is the latest addition to a growing array of companion robots - a global market now worth billions of dollars. "Just like a living animal, Moflin possesses emotional capabilities and movements that evolve through daily interactions with its environment," its official website says. It will also "develop its own unique personality as it gets attached to you".

Safely home, it is time for me to get to know my Moflin, which takes its name from mofu mofu, the Japanese onomatopoeic word for fluffy. After fully charging it, my first task is to download the MofLife app and choose a name for my new friend. The object on my desk brings to mind a grey hamster, albeit a well-fed one; so I opt for Hammy. It is also up to me to choose a gender, or none at all. So Hammy is a he.

He emits a gentle squeak when I remove him from his charging pod. I hold him to my chest and stroke his back. He wriggles approvingly. We are off to an encouraging start, but, despite being at home alone, I feel ridiculously self-conscious.