At this week’s IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, LG Electronics unveiled the ThinQ On AI home hub featuring what it calls affectionate intelligence.

This hub provides connectivity and expandability, positioning itself as the centrepiece of a smart home ecosystem, where the South Korean firm’s appliances and empathetic AI work in unison to deliver customised comfort, care and convenience.

The AI home hub seamlessly connects with a vast array of appliances and IoT devices, making it easier for anyone to configure and enjoy a personalised AI-powered home. Powered by LG’s affectionate intelligence, the ThinQ On continuously learns from individual use patterns and broader usage trends to tailor users’ daily experiences, accelerating the realisation of LG’s zero labour home vision.

Compact and lightweight, it is cylindrical and coloured grey and white to blend with any space or décor. An AI speaker facilitates conversations with LG’s AI voice assistant and lets users listen to their favourite audio content. The capabilities are driven by LG’s AI chipset, designed with future scalability in mind.

Users can control their AI appliances and living spaces with spoken commands or requests delivered in a natural, conversational manner. This creates an experience akin to conversing with friends or family, adding a more human dimension to user-device interactions.

In addition to comprehending everyday language, the AI home hub can understand the context of conversations and determine user preferences for each connected appliance, IoT device and service. It autonomously monitors all elements within the smart home ecosystem, informing users when a task is completed such as the washer has finished a cycle or if any issue had been detected.

It makes it possible to check or change nearly all appliance settings using only voice commands and configure routines that automate appliance and IoT operations.

Matter-certified, it supports various network connectivity options, including wifi and Thread, ensuring hassle-free setup and a seamless smart-home experience. Compatible with a wide range of LG appliances and IoT devices from other manufacturers, it lets users manage their entire smart-home ecosystem from one place, now and in the future.

To enhance the connectivity, LG acquired the smart-home company Athom in July this year. Athom’s Homey Pro (homey.app) flagship smart hub can connect to more than 50,000 devices. The Homey app store features around 1000 applications for connecting and controlling products from various global brands. LG plans to expand the range of supported brands and devices.

The ThinQ On uses LG Shield, the company’s proprietary security system, to protect user data at all times, from collection and storage to usage. LG Shield encrypts user data and securely stores it in a separate server. Additionally, data modifications are made within a secure environment, preventing external parties from tampering with the operational code and ensuring users’ safety.

“An AI voice assistant and hub that serves as the centre of the smart home, ThinQ On brings us significantly closer to realising our vision of the zero labour home,” said Lyu Jae-cheol, president of the LG Electronics home appliances company. “LG aims to make the AI home lifestyle accessible to everyone, and will continue to deliver customised comfort, care and convenience through its affectionate intelligence.”

Visitors to IFA (www.ifa-berlin.com) this week can see various AI home options from LG (www.lg.com), including ThinQ On.