Las-Vegas-based robotics company Realbotix is developing Echo robots, AI-imbued companionship robots designed to carry conversations. To cut costs, the robots are just a head and torso, absent expensive joints and limbs. Four models are in the works, named Aria, Mila, Dave and Amar; the company says every Echo talks, listens, and reacts with a personality of its own, with silicone-skinned faces said to be lifelike and natural-sounding voices. The head-and-torso robots run $11,950, and a full-body one sells for $59,950, though it is not clear what they can do beyond move their arms. None of the robots in their base configurations can see, recognize or meet your eyes; that requires the optional $24,950 vision system, which puts cameras in their peepers. A subscription is also involved: the $20/month Base plan gets 10 hours of conversation, the $40/month Plus plan gets 40 hours of chatter, "more expressive voices," 100-plus languages or accents, and the ability to "edit" your robot's personality, and the $200/month Enterprise plan gets 100 hours of talk, the "smartest" AI model, the ability to create your own characters and hook it up to your own AI models. The company is taking $200 reservations now and says they'll ship next year.