What is Always-OFFline Mode (AOF)?

"Always-OFFline Mode" (AOF) is a core feature of our robots. Despite the name, AOF is not a software setting or selectable operating mode. It is a hardware architecture. AOF guarantees none of your private conversations or other interactions with the robot will ever be accessed by an unauthorized third party. Our vision - some of your secrets should be kept as secrets and not broadcasted to the Internet.

A lot of modern gadgets requiring constant Internet connection. Sometimes it's a legitimate need, but in a lot of cases it's done primarily for tracking, subscription fee extraction, data collection (and consequently, data selling), or because of poor and lackluster engineering. Our vision is that all of the aforementioned points shall be eliminated. We believe that once you've bought a device, you own it completely.

If you're buying one of our robots, you can be sure there will be no subscription fee, no mandatory accounts, no data collection, or any other predatory tactics. It is up to the people to decide when and how they'd like to use their property.

Since Always-Offline Mode is always enabled, and cannot be disabled, you don't need to worry about your privacy and safety of your personal data. The robot contains no built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular, Zigbee, LoRa, Ethernet, or other network interface, therefore it's physically impossible to extract any data from it remotely. There's no way to "disable" AOF without making some serious physical modifications of the robot's hardware and software configuration. Essentially, to "disable" the AOF, one would need to re-engineer the robot's entire high-level control system.

Another benefit of AOF is that it guarantees that nobody can remotely hack and control your robot, which ensures your physical safety as well. A lot of companies producing long speeches about their security measures, but the truth is - there always was (and always will be) a problem of "the sword and the shield". It's an arms race between security engineers and hackers, with the users stuck in between them, serving as guinea pigs. So instead of hoping that your device is "secure enough for now... maybe", why not to opt for a much more stable and guaranteed solution of "no connectivity means no hacking". AOF is exactly this solution, stable and guaranteed.

Finally, AOF means that your robot is not relying on any external servers. Many years later, your robot will still function and serve you the same way, as it's completely independent from the Internet. Most of modern gadgets will be useless bricks just a few years in the future, as the companies produced them might go out of business or change their server infrastructure. But here at Syntheva, we believe that devices should serve people well for as long as their physical properties allow. This also helps with technology preservation, as self-contained pieces of technology could be preserved for nearly forever, serving both current and future generations. To give you an example of why it is so important: think about your favorite classic car or a retro computer - produced somewhere in the middle of the last century, it's still being used and brings joy to many people today; while a modern smartphone produced just a couple of years ago might already be completely useless, as no apps would work due to the changed backend infrastructure.

What if Synthia needs information from the Internet?

Synthia is intended to be an artificial woman, not simply another connected appliance. That distinction shapes how we think about her abilities.

People do not possess a built-in wireless link to every online service. If you want to know next week's weather in Sydney, you might check your smartphone, glance at a weather display, or use another device that presents the information to you. Synthia can interact with information in the same natural way: through the human-readable interfaces already present in the world around her.

This means the device that is meant to be online can retrieve the information and display it, while Synthia herself remains offline. She does not need a private connection to a remote server, a cloud account, or invisible background access simply to tell you what she can see on a screen. The interaction is local, visible, and under your control.

This approach may sound less like a conventional smart-device architecture, and that is exactly the point. A realistic humanoid does not need invisible digital superpowers behind the owner's back. If information is available on a screen, Synthia can read the screen. If a device has a button, she can press the button. Synthia can use the same tools and interfaces as the people she live with. That keeps the boundary between Synthia and the Internet clear while allowing her to take part naturally in an increasingly connected world.

After all, you are buying a friend - not a smart TV.

How about updates?

A USB drive-based update is a very convenient way of updating your robot. Simply download new firmware and AI software onto a fresh USB drive, plug it into your robot's USB port and select "Update" command on the robot's control panel. This method also ensures that any update would happen only when You want it to happen.