The first three areas it’s focusing on are gaming, imaging & sensing, and gastronomy. As for that last one, a concept video Sony released last year proposed the idea of “robot gastronomomy” that relied on autonomous tech to cook food at home or even on a night out. Sony AI global head Hiroaki Kitano previously led a cooking robot collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University, and it will be interesting to see what it develops there.

The application of advanced AI has shown up in products like the A6600 camera, where it contributes to an impressive improvement in autofocus, while opportunities for machine learning and AI in gaming are obvious, when it’s applied to improving cloud gaming or just making enemy characters a bit smarter.

There are further additions if you don’t care to program your pooch. You can “potty train” your Aibo using a mapping feature, teach it to be quiet and carry it in an upright position. You can also feed the bot by using virtual coins to buy “aibocrisps,” but you’ll want to be cautious. While you’ll earn coins for free by signing into the My Aibo app, Sony also offers coins for purchase with real-world money. Yes, your robot dog now has microtransactions.

Aibo is still far from a trivial purchase at $2,900. However, the developer tools make it easier to justify if you’re the tinkering sort. You can treat it more as a project than a novelty with a fixed set of features.