This Week in Tech 1066: "A Supercomputer in Your Pocket"
January 12, 2026
Host: Leo Laporte
Guests: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy (The Verge), Jason Heiner (The Deep View), Father Robert Ballecer, SJ
Episode Overview
This annual CES (Consumer Electronics Show) wrap-up features firsthand impressions from three on-the-ground tech experts: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy (The Verge), Jason Heiner (The Deep View), and Father Robert Ballecer, SJ—the Digital Jesuit. The episode serves as a lively, insightful journey through the major themes and standout products from CES 2026, with a particular focus on robotics, AI in the home, advanced chips, smart home standards, accessible tech, and the broader trends shaping both consumer and enterprise technology.
Main Themes
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The Maturation of AI and Robotics:
Both practical and quirky, robots captured attention—particularly their new levels of dexterity, autonomy, and failures (falling over and causing minor havoc). “Physical AI” emerges as a new framing for embodied intelligence, moving beyond humanoid shapes to domain-specific capability. -
The Race for Local AI Compute:
New generation chips from Nvidia (Vera Rubin), AMD, and advanced small-form data centers are pulling AI workloads out of the cloud, bringing “supercomputers in your pocket” closer to reality. -
Smart Home, Evolved:
Smart home tech feels “grown up” with the arrival of affordable, interoperable devices, tangible improvements in standards (Matter, Thread, Alero), and companies like IKEA making connected homes mainstream and accessible. -
Sustainability and Privacy at Scale:
Concerns over power/water use in data centers and privacy/security with interconnected devices and home-mapping robots thread through tech’s ongoing expansion.
Episode Highlights & Key Discussions
1. CES Energy & Vibe
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CES as Tech’s “Super Bowl”
Jennifer: “For a tech nerd, it's like the Oscars and Christmas and the super bowl all at once.” (01:42) -
Fatigue and Fun:
Attendees chronicled the epic walking with some clocking 30–40+ miles on pedometers, but agreed that the excitement outweighed the exhaustion.
2. Humanoid Robots: Impressive, Flawed, and Hilarious
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Falling Robot Follies
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Jennifer recounts robots meant to do laundry toppling over—sometimes onto her.
- “Jupiter weighs 170 pounds and hurts when it falls on you, which it did.” (05:46)
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Non-autonomy still the norm: Most show floor demos were remote-controlled for safety.
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The “chimpanzee in your house” problem: robots have strength but limited judgment or reliability.
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On humanizing robots:
- “If there were a big metal box falling over, you'd have run… but you saw a humanoid and tried to help.” (06:22)
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World Models and Digital Twins
Jason: Siemens and others are integrating digital twin simulation and physics models with robots, enabling rapid deployment without endless tweaks.- “With this new model, …they were able to simulate all of it. … Instead of two or three days… took less than two hours.” (13:29)
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Switchbot & 'TikTok-Trained' Robots:
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Some robots are getting trained via TikTok and thousands of repetitive actions in mock homes.
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Jennifer: “He [the CEO] told me that they train the robots on TikTok, which made me very worried.” (15:16)
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Key Takeaway:
Rather than one generalist humanoid, the future is specialized robots and household AI hubs—vacuum robots that sort laundry; arms for kitchens; robots that orchestrate connected smart appliances.
3. Robots that Climb Stairs & Jump
- Roborock Saros Rover
- Jennifer’s standout: “A robot vacuum that can not only climb stairs but it can clean them, too.” (18:17)
- The show saw demos for robots with little legs that jump over transitions and clean surfaces previously missed by standard robots.
4. Chinese Tech Ascendancy
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Dreametech & Roborock Disruption
- Rapid innovation and booth size growth, knocking legacy players like Roomba out.
- “Dreamy came out with their first product and it was better than Roborock’s.” (24:25)
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Concerns over Security & Privacy:
- Local (on-device) processing is valued, but many devices still use cloud servers.
- “Anything connected to the Internet, you are going to have security risks.” (27:17)
5. Father Robert's Top 5 CES Gadgets Countdown
(breaks interspersed throughout show; see timestamps for details)
1. Strut EV Mobility Device (32:21)
- Smart, autonomous wheelchair: high-tech sensors, self-driving, collision avoidance. “15,000 is what I was looking at for a standard electronic motorized wheelchair.” (35:17)
2. Dynsys Z1 Exoskeleton (73:44)
- Lightweight, wearable, knee-assisting exoskeleton for mobility and joint pain relief.
3. Jackery Solar Marsbot (93:11)
- Solar-tracking, mobile power bank—a “solar panel on wheels” that autonomously finds the sun.
4. LG Mobility Transparent Windshield Display (126:51)
- Contextual info heads-up display for cars, minimal distraction, possible future for AR driving.
5. Nvidia Vera Rubin Chip & Platform (160:07)
- “The platform is actually a combination of six different components…all the silicon in a Rubin data center spends more of its time processing and less time waiting…3.5 times faster than Blackwell[,] requires one quarter the number of GPUs…10x more efficient in inference token costs…”
- "[I]gnore most of [AI hype] because, well, there’s only so many AI enabled appliances and dancing robots I can take. However, as part of my day job … Nvidia’s announcement … caught my attention above all else.” (160:07)
6. Supercomputers in Your Pocket & Next-Gen Chips
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Portable Data Centers & Local AI
- Father Robert possesses a not-yet-released AI compute “box,” enabling local, private AI workloads (video editing, real-time translation), bypassing the cloud.
- “You can do everything local—…put together a 4k video lasting about 30 seconds in about 90 seconds.” (39:14)
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Nvidia Vera Rubin, AMD Strix Halo, Competition & Efficiency:
- Chips are becoming drastically more efficient (“8x the work per watt over last gen”), enabling new workloads.
- “It makes economic sense to just no longer use the Blackwell chips that you’ve got in reserve. Just buy all brand new Vera Rubin chips.” (46:44)
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Sustainability Concerns in Data Centers:
- “For Elon’s 2-gigawatt data center, he’s going to be losing about 79 million gallons of water a year.” (53:29)
7. Smart Home Gets Mainstreamed
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Surge in Standards:
- “It was a great show for smart home standards like Matter and Thread and Alero.” (151:01)
- Companies like IKEA & Acara making devices cheaper, easier, more interoperable.
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Hands-Free Smart Locks:
- “The first smart lock to support Apple HomeKey’s hands-free unlocking—using UWB and directionality.” (108:14)
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Buttons Are Back!
- Jennifer: “Physical controls are so key in the smart home… Now, they’ve got a clear, solid connectivity layer that they can use that connects… So it means that… more features, bringing better things to your smart home devices…” (151:01)
8. Quirky, Memorable Gadgets and Concepts
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Dreamy Halo Hair Dryer:
- Giant, smart, AI-enabled, lamp/hair dryer hybrid (28:04).
- “It's as tall as a human almost… instead of having to hold a blow dryer, you can have the Dreamy Halo dry your hair.” (29:23)
- Giant, smart, AI-enabled, lamp/hair dryer hybrid (28:04).
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Lego Smart Bricks:
- Connected, character-aware, interactive, sound-and-light-enabled Lego sets for new levels of play (57:29).
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Toilets With Cameras:
- Jokingly, one of the more “traditionally” weird CES display types—analyzing your output for health tracking (102:20).
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Emotional Support AI Toys:
- The rise of AI “companions” for kids & adults (“Little Milo”)—sparking concerns about replacing real connection (63:47).
9. Other Notables & Show Trends
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Meta’s Smart Glasses & Wearables:
- The always-there AI assistant is on the way, with companies racing to offer displays, teleprompters, and conversational assistants in glasses – but nobody’s quite nailed mainstream appeal.
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Sustainability, Efficiency, & Quantum Computing:
- Pressure for AI hardware efficiency and experimentation continues ("Quantum is very real...there are companies actually commercializing it now,” 171:08).
Notable Quotes & Timestamps
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Jennifer Pattison Tuohy:
"If [a robot] can't open a [laundry] bottle, what is it going to be doing in my home?" (07:52)
“This really felt like the year the smart home kind of grew up.” (150:44)
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Jason Heiner:
“The difference [with digital twin robotics] was…they had already simulated all of it…what would have taken two or three days...took less than two hours.” (13:29)
“We'll see some companies coming out to sort of differentiate themselves because there obviously are concerns [around privacy].” (27:17)
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Father Robert Ballecer:
“With this box…you can do everything local…for places where we cannot use current translation services because they all require us to send conversations away. That’s a no-go.” (39:56)
“The platform is actually a combination of six different components...by tightly integrating all six, Nvidia has greatly reduced the bottleneck between each, enabling rack scale integration.” (160:07)
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Leo Laporte:
“As I become more and more enamored of AI, I kind of want to have it with me.” (85:20)
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On TikTok-Training Robots
"He [the CEO] told me that they train the robots on TikTok, which made me very worried." (15:16)
Conclusion: Broader Takeaways
- The future is physical AI and specialized robots, not generalist humanoids.
- Local, private AI compute is on the rise, driven by next-gen chips and privacy needs.
- Home automation and smart homes are finally realizing their promise—thanks to powerful standards and accessibility.
- Efficiency, sustainability, and privacy will be core challenges as tech’s reach continues expanding.
Selected Segment Timestamps
- 03:59 – Jennifer’s run-in with falling laundry robots
- 13:29 – World models, simulation, and AI-powered robotics
- 18:17 – Roborock Saros Rover conquers stairs
- 32:21, 73:44, 93:11, 126:51, 160:07 – Father Robert’s Top 5 CES Countdown
- 39:14 – Portable local AI data center
- 108:14 – Arrival of UWB hands-free smart locks
- 127:49 – LG transparent display in car windshields
- 151:01 – Smart home “grows up” with real interoperability and accessibility
- 171:07 – The “Foundry” and quantum computing at CES
For the full conversation and rich anecdotes—including robot accidents, $10 IKEA speakers, and emotional AI pets—listen to the complete episode or catch highlight clips on TWiT’s YouTube channel.