Pet tech just got uncomfortably advanced. Whisker unveiled the Litter-Robot 5 Pro today, an $899 self-cleaning litter box that uses facial recognition to identify your cats and monitors their bathroom habits through AI-powered cameras. The move signals how AI surveillance is creeping into the most intimate corners of our lives - even our pets' toilets.
Whisker is betting cat owners will pay premium prices to surveil their pets' most private moments. The company's new Litter-Robot 5 Pro, announced today, deploys two night vision cameras to track everything from facial features to waste patterns, creating what might be the most intimate surveillance device ever marketed to consumers.
The $899 price tag represents a 28% jump from the previous Litter-Robot 4, but that's just the entry fee. The real revenue play comes through Whisker Plus, a $7.99 monthly subscription that promises "detailed analysis of data trends" by monitoring your cat's bathroom behavior. Pet owners can't opt out their cats from this digital monitoring.
"We can tell the difference between pee and poop and will dispatch the latter quicker for better odor control," Whisker claims in their product announcement. The company says its dual-camera system - one forward-facing for facial recognition, one interior-facing for waste analysis - provides more accurate activity tracking than previous models.
The launch comes as pet tech companies chase the $261 billion global pet care market through increasingly sophisticated monitoring devices. Whisker's move into AI surveillance mirrors broader trends in consumer tech, where companies are monetizing intimate behavioral data through subscription models.
The Pro model can accommodate up to five cats, one more than its predecessor, using facial recognition to distinguish between similar-looking pets. For households with identical cats, Whisker offers PetTags - $29 RFID devices that double as digital pet IDs with QR codes for lost pet recovery.
But the 5 Pro isn't Whisker's only new offering. The company is also launching a camera-less Litter-Robot 5 for $799 and the budget-friendly Litter-Robot Evo at $599. All three models feature redesigned control panels with LCD displays, reducing dependence on smartphone apps that have frustrated users.
The Evo targets cost-conscious consumers with a smaller footprint accommodating two cats. It lacks premium features like automatic night lights and litter-level sensing but maintains the core self-cleaning functionality. The original Litter-Robot 4 continues at $699, creating a four-tier product lineup.
