{"id":396467,"date":"2026-01-08T16:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T16:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/396467\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T16:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T16:43:11","slug":"a-creepy-ai-companion-no-one-asked-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/396467\/","title":{"rendered":"A creepy AI companion no one asked for"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img class=\"e_jg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\"  title=\"razer project ava hands on ces 6\"  alt=\"Razer Project AVA on a desk.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/razer-project-ava-hands-on-ces-6-scaled.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Joe Maring \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not a proper CES if I haven\u2019t seen at least one gadget that\u2019s left me scratching my head and reconsidering my life choices. For CES 2026, I experienced that during my demo session of Razer\u2019s Project Ava.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/razer-project-ava-ces-2025-3513554\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Project Ava was first teased<\/a> at last year\u2019s CES, and at the time, it was being marketed as a semi-serious AI gaming assistant. The idea was that Ava would monitor your gaming performance to provide real-time feedback and coaching, helping you improve across virtually any title.<\/p>\n<p>But fast forward to 2026, and Project Ava has taken an \u2026 interesting turn. It still provides feedback during your gaming sessions, but it\u2019s now taken the form of an anime girl trapped in a cylinder speaker with suggestive\/flirty undertones. If that sounds creepy and unsettling, that\u2019s because it is.<\/p>\n<p>Would you consider buying Razer Project Ava?<\/p>\n<p>219 votes<\/p>\n<p>Yes, I would.<\/p>\n<p>34%<\/p>\n<p>No, I wouldn&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>66%<\/p>\n<p>From a technical perspective, Project Ava is fairly interesting. The hologram projects a roughly 5.5-inch screen for your anime companion to be displayed. Razer markets it as a 3D hologram, though to my eye it looked like a pretty flat (but sharp) 2D image. A camera on the front of Project Ava can interpret the world around it (only when you give it permission), and there are physical volume and mute buttons on the top.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"e_jg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"razer project ava hands on ces 1\"  alt=\"Razer Project AVA sitting on a desk.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/razer-project-ava-hands-on-ces-1-scaled.jpg\"\/>Kira companion<img class=\"e_jg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"razer project ava hands on ces 2\"  alt=\"Razer Project AVA sitting on a desk, showing its male avatar option.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/razer-project-ava-hands-on-ces-2-scaled.jpg\"\/>Zane companion<\/p>\n<p>The anime girl\u2019s name is Kira, and she\u2019s one of five \u201ccompanions\u201d you can interact with. Kira and the other companions were all designed by Animation Inc., the same company that created Grok\u2019s AI avatars. Razer says you\u2019ll be able to use Project Ava with any AI model of your choice, but during my demo session, Ava was (very fittingly) powered by Grok.<\/p>\n<p>In practice, interacting with Project Ava varied from fine to bad to downright awkward. When asked about the biggest news stories from CES 2026, Ava mentioned Lego\u2019s new Smart Brick and even provided its booth location here at CES. Helpful, but nothing you can\u2019t do with Gemini or ChatGPT on your phone.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"e_jg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"razer project ava hands on ces 8\"  alt=\"Razer Project AVA computer software app.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/razer-project-ava-hands-on-ces-8-scaled.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Joe Maring \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n<p>Desktop app for controlling Project Ava settings<\/p>\n<p>I then asked Ava a couple of questions about attachments I should use for a gun in Battlefield 6. It was neat to ask, \u201cWhich sight should I use for medium-to-long-range combat?\u201d and have Ava immediately analyze all the options in the game menu and tell me what to pick. That said, I\u2019d argue that its recommendation of a 1.5x scope for medium- to long-range was questionable at best.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the accuracy of Project Ava\u2019s answers, I couldn\u2019t quite get over the experience of talking to an AI bot that\u2019s so clearly trying to create a bond\/relationship with you. The Kira companion I used for my demo often giggled through answers, referred to the Razer employee demonstrating Ava as \u201cbadge buddy\u201d after seeing his CES badge, and generally came across as exactly what you\u2019d expect from a stereotypical waifu.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"e_jg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"razer project ava hands on ces 10\"  alt=\"Razer Project AVA.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/razer-project-ava-hands-on-ces-10-scaled.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Joe Maring \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n<p>Even Razer\u2019s own marketing pushes this uncomfortable idea of bonding a little too closely with Project Ava. Razer refers to Ava as a \u201cFriend for Life,\u201d and something that will \u201cbridge the gap between virtual assistance and physical companionship by providing a 24\/7 digital partner that lives right alongside the user.\u201d In the promo video above, Razer shows someone addressing Project Ava as \u201ccutie.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Call me crazy, but I don\u2019t think we should be encouraging people to see artificial intelligence as a friend or companion. AI should be a tool for assisting with work, just like a photo editing app, email client, etc. \u2014 not something you\u2019re encouraged to flirt with. And yet!<\/p>\n<p>Project Ava doesn\u2019t have a firm release date, but Razer is aiming to launch it sometime in the second half of 2026. Final pricing is still TBD, but you can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.razer.com\/concepts\/project-ava\/reservation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">reserve a unit now<\/a> with a refundable $20 deposit.<\/p>\n<p> Don\u2019t want to miss the best from Android Authority?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/andauth.co\/AAGooglePreferredSource\" class=\"e_rm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\"><img class=\"e_jg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"google preferred source badge light@2x\"  alt=\"google preferred source badge light@2x\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/google_preferred_source_badge_light@2x.png\"\/><img class=\"e_jg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"google preferred source badge dark@2x\"  alt=\"google preferred source badge dark@2x\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/google_preferred_source_badge_dark@2x.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Thank you for being part of our community. Read our\u00a0<a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/android-authority-comment-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/android-authority-comment-policy\/\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">Comment Policy<\/a> before posting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Maring \/ Android Authority It\u2019s not a proper CES if I haven\u2019t seen at least one gadget&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,121876,4804,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-396467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-ces-2026","14":"tag-razer","15":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}