It's 2025 and companies still don't know what's good for AI.
That's the feeling we got from this year's CES, which showcased AI-powered kitchen appliances. Baby cribAnd other products that don't really call for AI.
Behold: A spice dispenser with an “intelligent” touch screen that senses your taste while you cook to suggest unique recipes.
Spicerr's usefulness is somewhat questionable. Spicerr didn't grind; Non-refillable private capsules cost $15-$20. All that aside, are people really itching for a salt and pepper shaker that suggests dining?
Elsewhere at the show was Dreo's ChefMaker 2, an AI-powered air fryer. yes You read that right — an AI-powered air conditioner.
The concept is not as extraordinary as Spicerr's. remember you ChefMaker 2 can extract recipes from cookbooks via the page scanning feature and even handle the hard math of calculating cooking times and temperatures.
But is cookbook scanning really a feature the air fryer-buying public has been asking for? As a member, I can't say it's ever happened to me — it just seems to happen. True of most people.
Surprisingly, there were even weirder AI products in store at CES.
Razer's Project Ava Named after the killer robot in the 2014 movie “Ex Machina,” Razer's Project Ava is an “AI gaming copilot,” as the company describes it. Ava basically plays games for you without actually playing games for you. with permission Ava captures images of your computer screen and then provides instructions (eg “avoid when blade goes”).
As The Verge's Sean Hollister wroteAva is obviously trained game guides, but no credit to the author. It's also a good distraction. At least in its current form. Ava lags for several seconds and interrupts the game's audio to give instructions.
I have to ask again. Who is shouting this? Specifically. Who will use it regularly? Will it save a lot of money?
As far as I can tell, the AI products out there at CES are a symptom of the industry's uncontrolled hype. AI companies earned $97 billion in the US alone last year, enough to buy 42. Spheres. Marketers are throwing AI spaghetti at the wall; Because there are few downsides to doing so — and huge upsides.
In many cases, They are running at AI's limits as we know them. Finding AI's use cases technologically feasible is a huge challenge for the industry. often This leads to over-promising — under-delivering. ChatGPT is still wrong. Image generators are historically inaccurate. And the characters in the AI video are intertwined in each other's bodies.
That's why we have air fryers, IRL AI slop. Associated with spice dispensers and “AI gamers”. They're not what most of us want, but they're possible today with a minimal R&D boost.
Here's to better next year.
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