It's 2025, and companies still don't know what AI can do for them.
That's the impression I got from this year's CES, which featured AI-powered kitchen appliances, cribs, and other products that don't actually require AI.
See also: Spicerr is an “intelligent” touchscreen spice dispenser that learns your preferences and recommends unique recipes as you cook.
In the first place, there are some doubts about Spicer's usefulness. Spicerr does not shatter, requires its own capsules that cost $15-20, and is not refillable. That aside, did people really want salt and pepper shakers that suggested meals in the first place?
Elsewhere at the show was Dreo's ChefMaker 2, an AI-powered air fryer. Yes, you read that correctly. This is an air fryer equipped with AI.
Let me tell you, this concept isn't as crazy as Spicer's. ChefMaker 2 can extract recipes from cookbooks through its page scanning feature and can even handle the difficult math of calculating cooking times and temperatures.
But is cookbook scanning really the feature the airfryer buying public was looking for? Speaking as a member myself, I don't think I've ever thought of that, but it seems to apply to most people.
Image credit: Doreo
Remarkably, there were even more bizarre AI products on display at CES.
Razer's Project Ava, inexplicably named after the killer robot from the 2014 movie “Ex Machina,” is what the company describes as an “AI gaming co-pilot.” Ava basically plays the game for you without actually playing the game. With your permission, Ava will capture a still image of your computer screen and display a pointer (e.g., “Avoid when the blade spins”).
As The Verge's Sean Hollister writes, Ava is controversial in that it doesn't give credit to its creators, even though they were clearly trained on game guides. There is. That's also distracting. At least in its current form, Ava has a delay of a few seconds and interrupts the game's audio to give you instructions.
I have to ask again. Who exactly was asking for this? Besides, is there anyone who would pay money to use it on a regular basis?
As far as I'm concerned, the outlandish AI products at CES are emblematic of the industry's endless hype. AI companies raised $97 billion in the US alone last year, enough to buy 42 Spheres. Vendors are throwing AI spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks. There is little downside to doing so, and potentially huge upside.
In many cases, we are also facing the limits of AI as we know it. Determining which use cases for AI are technically feasible is a major challenge for the industry. It often leads to over-promising and under-delivering. The problem still occurs with ChatGPT. Image generator is historically inaccurate. The characters in the AI video then blend into each other's bodies.
So we're stuck with IRL AI slop: air fryers, spice dispensers, and “AI game co-pilots.” These are not things most of us want, but they are achievable today with relatively low R&D lift.
I hope next year will be a better year.
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