CES 2026: Part Five (Wednesday)

Summary

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Better Offline: CES 2026 – Part Five (Wednesday)

Podcast: Better Offline
Host: Ed Zitron (Cool Zone Media, iHeartPodcasts)
Guests: Carissa Bell (Engadget), Jared Newman (Advisorator), Robert Evans (Behind The Bastards), Chloe Radcliffe (comedian/actress), Adam Conover (Factually), Edward Ongweso Jr. (Tech Bubble)
Air Date: January 8, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode delivers a punchy, skeptical, and highly entertaining look at the state of consumer technology from the floor of CES 2026 in Las Vegas. With a roundtable of journalists, comics, and industry veterans, host Ed Zitron and guests dissect the parade of driverless dreams, questionable robots, and vaporware flooding the expo. The crew mixes biting jokes with incisive industry analysis, zeroing in on the gap between tech industry hype and real-world usefulness—plus rare praise where it’s due.

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Key Themes & Discussion Points

1. Laundry-Folding Robots & Vaporware Robotics (03:36–17:30)

• LG “Cloid”: A slow, humanoid laundry-folding robot that attracted crowds but is unlikely to ever be sold. Described by Carissa Bell as hilariously slow and more spectacle than substance, with awkward folding failures and human intervention needed to fix mistakes.

  • Carissa Bell (04:03): “One of the top comments was, ‘it’ll take three weeks to do your laundry at this pace.’”
  • The demo more theme park than product: “It felt like watching something at Disneyland... high production value, super charismatic presenter.” (06:15)
  • Critiques on practicality and marketability: Robots as headline-grabbers, but actual appliances (like auto-opening fridges) are what LG will sell. LG’s robot likely locked in “LG prison.”

• Switchbot’s Laundry Robot: Even slower, failed to fold anything despite prepped demos—again exposing robotics’ limitations.

  • Jared Newman (11:00): “It stood there for like five minutes doing nothing, then very slowly picked up one piece of laundry... and didn’t fold any.”
  • Panel lampoons the idea of robots that mimic human procrastination or “heavy sigh before doing laundry” (12:39), drawing parallels to household drama.

• Broader Problem with CES Robotics: The "year of the robot" is called out as mostly bluster—very few robots actually work, and those that do, do little of value.

  • Ed Zetron (16:09): “It’s becoming clear: the robots are here, but are they able to do anything? Yes, kind of. But slowly.”

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2. Robots, Gimmicks, and Practicality (17:24–24:46)

• Humanoid vs. Practical Designs: Chloe Radcliffe floats the idea that ditching humanoid forms could help solve the folding problem—perhaps a “giant tube” concept (17:34).
• Physical Challenges: Jared Newman notes real technical hurdles—garment variety complicates robotic folding; there’s no solution in sight except possibly non-humanoid innovation.
• Evaluation of Tech: Praise is rare but genuine when tech meets real needs—like robot exoskeleton sneakers aiding mobility (22:33).
  • Ed Zetron (24:46): “I think that’s what technology is meant to do... to allow you to do things you can’t do, to streamline things, to make things easier.”

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3. CES Hits & Misses: Honest Praise Amid Gimmick Fatigue (18:56–46:38)

• Gadgets That Impressed:

  • Pebble’s Return (19:03): Pebble’s new smartwatch and the “Index” note-taking ring get nods for passion, design, and practical value over hype. The ring can record and/or transcribe voice notes—useful for note-takers.
    • “These people that... just want this thing to exist and they put it into existence.” (Jared Newman, 19:03)
  • “Robotic Sneakers”: Battery-powered exoskeleton shoes designed for mobility-impaired users, and praised for actually addressing a real, tangible problem—$4,500 price surprisingly deemed “reasonable” given use-case.

• Smart Home Tech:

  • IKEA’s new line of smart bulbs and plugs: lauded for reliable, large-scale production and likely stability, unlike failure-prone off-brand IoT products (44:29).
  • “The product I want from CES is shit that just works—and they don’t care.” (Ed Zetron, 46:10)

• Robot Vacuums with Legs (Dreamy Vacuum/Cyber X): Seen as a fun concept, but questionably practical—docking stations with moving “legs” can't actually clean stairs themselves; “what’s the point?” moments abound (46:36).

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4. AI Slop, Gadgets as ChatGPT Wrappers, and Authenticity Fatigue (40:44–88:15)

• Proliferation of “AI Products”: The majority of new entries are just ChatGPT “wrappers” or chatbot integrations in everything from routers (“you can talk to your router but it won’t really fix anything”) to ovens (“it’ll auto-suggest a pizza recipe and turn the oven on for you”).

  • Jared Newman (87:09): “You could just design a UI that told you that... yet we’re reverting back to technology that communicates with you via a block of text generated by AI.”
  • Robert Evans (88:02): “It’s all just prompt engineering... every AI product you see is just prompts for the API.”

• Digital Companions & Health Integration: Companies like Tuya peddle digital assistant robots that run entire smart homes, recommend workouts/diets, and even generate custom podcasts on request—raising security, privacy, and legitimacy concerns (88:15–91:16).

  • Panel: This data centralization is a “privacy nightmare” and often dangerous when advice is unqualified.
  • Ed Zetron (92:53): “A massive numpty would use Chat GPT health.”

• Real Use vs. AI Vaporware:

  • Translators by “Trans AI” (79:07): Actually impressive—on-device translation and transcription tools, lauded for privacy and usefulness, unlike most voice-AI “assistants.”
  • Robert Evans (79:55): “I want it on device.”

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5. Mental Health Robots & the Danger of Hyper-Encouragement (94:43–98:23)

• AI as Therapist?: Panel discusses a serious talk by a clinical therapist—demand for AI therapy is real, but the profit/engagement models directly contradict what therapy requires: “You need pushback. You need critical analysis... not a machine trying to keep you happy so you keep using it.” (Robert Evans, 96:53)
  • Consensus: Genuinely ethical AI therapy may be technically impossible—market pressure will always push toward sleazy, engagement-maximizing designs.

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6. Final Roundtable: CES Culture, Industry Disconnect & Favorite Weird Finds (106:26–end)

• Why Does CES Exist?

  • Some consensus emerges: for manufacturers to meet buyers (esp. in OEM/Eureka Park for parts and B2B deals), for journalists to survey the landscape, and as a spectacle of industry direction.
  • Most consumer-facing stuff remains either hype/fake or solutions in search of problems (“robot that folds laundry if you want to wait eight hours, companion donut for your cat,” etc.).

• Best Quotes and Jokes:

  • “You know how your kid doesn’t have a robot hallucinating horoscopes for it? Well, we’ve solved that issue.” (Robert Evans, 130:15)
  • “‘Junky Cream’—that’s the worst product name on the show floor. It looks like... come.” (Ed Zetron, 136:21)
  • “If you’re thinking, ‘I’m going to put a camera in a toilet,’ you’re a fucking scumbag.” (Ed Zetron, 140:10)

• Personal Stories:

  • Chloe and Adam, both CES first-timers, describe the existential whiplash of the event—longing for simple pleasures in contrast to the glitzy, disconnected tech overload.
  • Robert Evans recalls favorite moments: “As a journalist, you learn the value of asking, ‘What’s the point?’ and sometimes breaking the rugged product with consent.”
  • Winning a Waymo beanie becomes Adam’s most useful takeaway: “Waymo has made my life—I became a corporate shill.” (143:00)

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• Laundry Robot Demo
  • “It’ll take three weeks to do your laundry at this pace.”
    —Carissa Bell (04:03)
• CES Culture in a Nutshell
  • “This is the one thing I came here to see... how long can I watch a robot NOT fold laundry?”
    —Jared Newman (13:00)
• On Useless Robot Prototypes
  • “It’s the year of the robots... but are they able to do anything? Yes, kind of.”
    —Ed Zetron (16:09)
• AI Slop Problem
  • “Every AI product you see is just prompts for the API... It’s all text.”
    —Ed Zetron (134:11)
• Ethics of AI Therapy
  • “They will always have access to robots that are terrible therapists but make you feel good. Why would anyone use and pay more for a bot that doesn’t?”
    —Robert Evans paraphrasing panelist (97:46)
• Robot Toilet Cam
  • “If you’re thinking, ‘I’m going to put a camera in a toilet,’ you’re a fucking scumbag.”
    —Ed Zetron (140:10)
• Most Useful Product
  • “The only present my boyfriend actually uses every day: plug, cable, and cables. And I’m still the husband!”
    —Chloe Radcliffe (69:50)

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Timestamps for Notable Segments

• Laundry robot demo deflation: 03:36–08:32
• Switchbot’s failed laundry demo: 10:55–13:00
• The ‘AI Slop’/ChatGPT wrapper explosion: 40:44–46:38, 87:09–88:15
• Digital assistants, ‘Tuya’ and privacy worries: 88:15–92:53
• Therapy bots panel discussion: 94:43–98:23
• Robot toilet cam & data privacy satire: 137:27–141:26
• Final impressions / Why CES exists?: 126:12–130:56

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Tone & Takeaways

The tone is caustic, honest, and comedic, embodying a deep skepticism of the hype-driven culture at CES. Real admiration is reserved for tech that demonstrably helps people—especially in accessibility. Most exhibitors, the hosts conclude, are solving problems that don’t exist, or overhyping slow, broken, or dangerous gimmicks.

The episode closes with stand-up plugs, a heartfelt moment of charity, and one last roll call of embarrassing company names— ensuring listeners get both laughter and sharp, actionable insight into what (doesn’t) matter in 2026’s overflowing gadget landscape.

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Want direct, no-bullshit CES reporting? This episode is your must-listen.

Transcript

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[Ed Zetron]

Call Zone Media. I've crossed oceans of time to bring you this podcast. This is better Offlines coverage of the Consumer Electronics show and I'm your host, Ed Zetron. Better offline. We're back here in the palazzo in beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada, bringing you yet another episode covering CES with an incredible core of even more incredible guests. And yes, I wrote it like that. We've got an open bar, tacos and places to sit down for members of the media, whether they join us on the microphone or not. Those joining me here at Swaggage claim are the incredible Carissa Bell of Engadget.

[Carissa Bell]

Hello. Hello.

[Ed Zetron]

And we've of course got the impeccable Jared Newman of the Advisorator newsletter, a returning guest for several years now. Well, I mean, one year.

[Jared Newman]

One year.

[Ed Zetron]

It's only been one. It just feels like many. And of course, the incredible actress and stand up comedian Chloe Radcliffe.

[Jared Newman]

Yeah.

[Ed Zicher]

Fresh off the elliptical in your hotel suite.

[Ed Zetron]

One of us is fucking using that. I've been, I've been doing podcasting. So, Carissa, we're going to start with you because you saw something I could not see moving. Every time I went by the LG Cloyd laundry folding robot, how was that? You said it here that it folded laundry and served food very slowly. Give me an idea of how slowly.

[Carissa Bell]

Well, there's a TikTok in that story that you can see and one of the top comments was it'll take three weeks to do your laundry at this pace.

[Ed Zetron]

Right.

[Carissa Bell]

And I don't know if it was slow because for the demo purposes they're trying to draw it out, make it more dramatic. But it started off with it was at a washing machine and it's trying to pull something out of a hamper, load it into the washing machine.

[Ed Zicher]

It's.

[Carissa Bell]

And it just is doing it so slow. It takes its time kind of picking it up.

[Ed Zetron]

Does it have any trouble?

[Carissa Bell]

It doesn't have trouble picking it up really. It's just, it's not really clear why it takes so long. It's just like, I think the arms are just kind of calculating. Maybe like each little movement slowly puts it in, slowly closes the washing machine door. Slowly rolls over to a table. There's like a pile of washcloths. Slowly picks one up, slowly starts folding it. Like just excruciating.

[Ed Zetron]

I love it.

[Carissa Bell]

And then it picks up the folded thing and then it messes up a little bit.

[Ed Zicher]

Did it fix the Mess up.

[Carissa Bell]

No, but there was like an LG person. I just had an arm reach out and they.

[Ed Zetron]

But when it, when you say mess it up, how so?

[Carissa Bell]

Like it was folded. Like if you imagine something that's very symmetrically folded and then when it. Its robot hand picks it up, like the top corner comes. Comes unaligned.

[Ed Zicher]

Awesome.

[Ed Zetron]

How much is this robot? Did they say anything like that?

[Carissa Bell]

Oh, I don't think they're going to sell it.

[Ed Zetron]

Okay.

[Jared Newman]

That's always what happens with laundry folding.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, yeah, no, that's like the.

[Jared Newman]

There's a rich history of CES and laundry folding.

[Ed Zetron]

Laundry mate here.

[Jared Newman]

Oh, they all went.

[Ed Zetron]

We love laundry mate. Laundromat. I think I've been coming to see us in 2011. Are they dead finally?

[Jared Newman]

They're dead. Yeah, all the, all the 2010s ones are dead.

[Ed Zicher]

That's.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, that's. Look what they took from us. So.

[Ed Zicher]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

You also said it served food. I'm guessing it also did that weirdly.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Carissa Bell]

You know, it walked over. Roll. Sorry, rolled over. Because it did not have legs. It has like a wheeled kind of robot vacuum.

[Ed Zicher]

Is it humanoid at all?

[Carissa Bell]

It has arms and like a head unit.

[Ed Zetron]

Take a look at that. Look at that piece of shit.

[Ed Zicher]

A head unit.

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah, that's what they called it. You know, they're kind of selling this as it works with all of LG's appliances. So when it rolls over to the fridge, the fridge opens, it pulls out your milk, rolls over to the table, sets it down.

[Ed Zetron]

That's so bad. And like, I'm guessing it would only be compatible with the LG stuff. Is this just a concept?

[Carissa Bell]

It is a concept. So, I mean, the whole presentation, it kind of felt like watching something at Disneyland. Yeah, it was like very high production value. They had this very charismatic presenter who clearly memorized this very tight 15 minute script that included a video that was playing. And they invented this story about this family and how this. How Cloyd is going to help the dad find his keys and help really slowly.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Carissa Bell]

Make kids make the breakfast. And you're watching it and you're kind of like, okay, like that seems cool that the robot can do this. But then if you read the.

[Ed Zetron]

But can it.

[Carissa Bell]

Well, if you read the press release, what they say is, well, you know, we're really interested in moving more into robotics technology. But they don't say anything about actually making Cloyd, selling it. The only thing that they mention is roboticized appliances like fridge doors that open automatically or oven doors. So I feel like they're selling us the robot. But what they're actually going to sell is just like a fridge that can open by itself.

[Ed Zicher]

Like a fridge with a trunk off of a new suv.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah.

[Ed Zicher]

Button in it.

[Ed Zetron]

But no, no, you have to get like the $7000 LG one that you can kick to open. Yeah, yeah. It's that these things are. I just want the coldest possible Diet Coke. Is that too much to ask?

[Ed Zicher]

Also, is its name Cloyd?

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

C L O I D. But the I is small for some reason. I just. It's so strange to do this thing. And it got all the headlines and everyone's going, robot. This is the year of robotics at ces. And the most famous one is not being released.

[Carissa Bell]

No.

[Ed Zetron]

And if you. It's great. You can have breakfast ready if you started at 1am like, just like, just incredibly. Like Henry Casey kind of put it as like the sloth from Zootopia. Just fucking just. Yeah.

[Ed Zicher]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

It's so strange. What a strange thing to do. Because if that worked much faster it would be kind of cool, man. That's. Yes. But it's like it's just not being released.

[Robert Evans]

They just.

[Ed Zetron]

Why show it?

[Carissa Bell]

I mean, I think you said it. They got all the headlines. It looks cool. I think they're trying to show off that, you know, like you said. Everyone's saying that this is the year of a lot of robots who are trying to. We're finally seeing that some of them are capable of kind of doing these tasks. But these companies aren't yet ready or able or willing to actually make this into real products. Like, I think it's probably just not feasible. This thing is huge.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

How big was it?

[Carissa Bell]

I would say I didn't get close to it because it was sort of behind like a rope line and you could line up for like a selfie. But I booked it out of the booth before that. I think it's taller than I am.

[Robert Evans]

Right.

[Ed Zicher]

I'm realizing I actually think I saw. I don't think I saw the laundry demo or I saw. I saw some portion of the demo, but because what I noticed about it. And now this is the different perspectives that we come at it from. I was like, wow, all of these robotics companies and, you know, electronics companies just wind up hiring these very hot actors who are very charming to run the demo.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah.

[Ed Zicher]

Because the guy. I don't know if the guy who was. I don't know if there was a person helping with the laundry and food demo, but there was a guy who was like Doing this demo as I walked by, very quick. And he's this gorgeous man, right? Being like, hey, Cloyd, do you anything else that you can do to help me make my life easier? And it's like, yeah, of course. I guess. I guess.

[Ed Zetron]

Floyd, shrink my shit.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ed Zicher]

I mean, truly. It's like, chloe, do you want to come over here and touch my pecs? It's like. And you really sort of do watch it. And you're like, I guess I want to fuck the humans, so maybe I will buy the robot. It seems to sort of watch these demos.

[Ed Zetron]

You cannot do either.

[Ed Zicher]

No, can't do either.

[Ed Zetron]

You might be able to, but.

[Ed Zicher]

Yeah, it's a big robot.

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah. And that's why I said it's kind of like being at Disneyland, where they have this very nice, very carefully orchestrated demo that they set up. And it's like watching a little movie of what they are trying to say is going to be the future. I guess. And when you're watching it, you're like, oh, that's pretty neat. Like, all of that, look, works together. The robot world over there, look, it found that guy's keys. But then you think about it for a second and you realize that, no, they're not actually going to have that.

[Ed Zetron]

So, like, a very clean house, which is traditionally not where you lose your keys.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

It's not like you lose it in an empty room and you're like, oh, it's in the corner, not underneath something.

[Ed Zicher]

And also, if the way that the robot is going to be able to find the keys is by having something like an airtag on the keys that the robot is connected to, we have that.

[Carissa Bell]

And also, the robot doesn't have legs, so if your keys are upstairs, they can't help you.

[Ed Zicher]

It's very Mall cop on a Segway coded, where you can just get up onto a curb and evade it like a Dalek. Just like.

[Ed Zetron]

So you also saw this Switchbot. Switchbot, which also.

[Jared Newman]

They have a laundry folding robot.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

How's that? Have you seen it? What happened?

[Jared Newman]

Well, I didn't see it fold laundry. So they. Because they had it out, and they had a bench with a few rumpled pieces of clothes on it. I was like, great, I'm gonna see it fold laundry. This is what I came here for. And it stood there for like five minutes doing nothing, and then it very slowly rolled over to one piece of laundry, and I was like, great, it's gonna fold the laundry. It very slowly picked up the piece of laundry, and then very slowly Moved over to the washing machine and put the garment in the washing machine very slowly, and then very slowly closed the door and then waited another five minutes and then went over to another garment and did the exact same thing one at a time. Each individual piece of laundry it went to put in the laundry machine and didn't fold.

[Ed Zetron]

Any of you know, this is like a heavily prepped demo. They've had to go through a lot, like the Boston Dynamics videos, where they, like, show the robot working 100 takes, hundred takes for the robot just, like, rolls on its back somehow, like, explodes. I love this. I love that they're trying to pretend it's just, like, fraud. Like, there's something very fraudulent about this. Like, the robots are here. Yes, they're here. But are they able to do anything? Yes, kind of. If I needed someone to very slowly put laundry in my washing machine and eventually do it, I would.

[Robert Evans]

One moment, I was gonna say, I.

[Ed Zicher]

Stand first five minutes, completely still resisting folding laundry, and then slowly move one chair.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

Does the robot look at its phone and scroll instagram for like, 17 minutes before it puts in one t shirt and does it. Can you program it to leave the washing in the washing machine and forget.

[Jared Newman]

To do it has to do, like, a visibly heavy sigh before it starts.

[Ed Zicher]

This is the most drama that folding laundry has ever been the recipient of.

[Ed Zetron]

Other than in, like, a deteriorating relationship.

[Ed Zicher]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There. It's like a symbol of drama. This. You're. You're like, I. This is the one thing I came here to see.

[Jared Newman]

And I was torn because I was like, how long can I wait to see if it actually. Was it gonna run the laundry? And then I had to wait for it to come out of.

[Ed Zetron]

So just looking at this video, it's also, like, got a very strange long body with L. I got, like, with the arms.

[Robert Evans]

No, it's cute.

[Ed Zetron]

But it's also like, if I saw this in my home, it would chill me every day. I'd never get used to seeing this, like, Slenderman robot.

[Jared Newman]

Yeah, it looks a little dead behind the eyes.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah.

[Robert Evans]

It has, like, these weird.

[Ed Zetron]

Like, the Chows from Sonic Adventure there we are, all 18 people who got that.

[Ed Zicher]

Yeah.

[Carissa Bell]

It's just to their credit, they did tell me that they are planning to sell it. Wow. Towards the end of 2026.

[Ed Zicher]

Wait, Cloyd. Or that one.

[Advertisement Voice]

That one.

[Ed Zicher]

Switchbot.

[Carissa Bell]

The Slenderman.

[Ed Zetron]

Cloyd will never leave the lg. The LG Prison they put it in. Did you see any working robots, either of you?

[Jared Newman]

One I saw Fighting robot.

[Ed Zetron]

Right. And I saw that guy's dog shit form when he was fighting it. Just like. No, didn't plant his feet at all. Pathetic.

[Advertisement Voice]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

Well, what was the purpose of that? Are you meant to fight it? Is it like a boxing robot?

[Jared Newman]

It was. It also danced, and I think it was just like one of those general, like, look at all these things that this robot can do.

[Ed Zetron]

Feels like what they sell on Black Friday. Is that the one that I see in, like, various Instagram videos where it's just, like, running into a wall?

[Jared Newman]

There was a sign that said $5,000, so I guess you could just buy it.

[Ed Zetron]

Oh, my God.

[Ed Zicher]

Honestly, that feels like.

[Robert Evans]

You can haggle.

[Jared Newman]

Yeah, it's one of those, like, 35,500 bucks.

[Ed Zetron]

I'll give you $35. Like. Like, you can take a tax loss. I will take this. Whatever this is. I'm beating the fuck out of it, regardless.

[Jared Newman]

The weirdest category of stuff at CES is the things that you can buy at ces.

[Ed Zetron]

Like the massage chairs.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

Like the wonderful massage chair. I actually did see on the way through CES to get. I found a chair, a massage chair company called Dr. Boss, and it just says, do you have any problems with your spine? And spine is in blue bold letters. And then there are, like, three or four spaces with a question mark. I love them. I love the weird massage chair companies I was mentioning earlier. Episode. They scam you. They're like, yeah, I got special CESD. Always. Like, you don't.

[Ed Zicher]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

You have, like, 7,000% margins on this. You just, like, everyone is defrauded.

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

Any working robots of any kind? Because even last year I thought I saw working ones.

[Carissa Bell]

There was a TikTok dancing robot.

[Jared Newman]

There's one that does rock, paper, scissors against you, and it wins every time.

[Ed Zicher]

Because it can detect right as you're about to do.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Jared Newman]

It was actually like. It was like a cheating robot because it was like a second behind your gesture.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah.

[Jared Newman]

It just looked at what you're doing and then was like, all right, I'm gonna do the other thing.

[Ed Zicher]

Oh, that blows.

[Ed Zetron]

What the fuck is the point? I'm sorry. I've been trying this whole week to find good stuff, and every time, I'm like, it's the year of the robots. Let's look at the robots. You can't.

[Ed Zicher]

How many other years has it been the year of robotics?

[Ed Zetron]

I actually don't know.

[Jared Newman]

That's a great question.

[Ed Zicher]

Yeah, I don't think, like, that feels like a headline. That has happened before. Right.

[Jared Newman]

I feel like I Probably wrote they.

[Ed Zetron]

Play with the idea occasionally, but it's. There's just something very bizarre about this. I guess it's like, well, we can't claim LLMs do anything, so why don't we lie about something else? Okay.

[Jared Newman]

Hey, we have robot vacuums. All right?

[Ed Zetron]

And the robot vacuums are fine, other than picking up dust in my apartment, apparently. And. Yeah, I just. I'm very confused. And we discussed this earlier as well. Like, the robot, they had arms last year, and now the robots have legs. Like the robot vacuums.

[Jared Newman]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

And I don't know, it's just. It's so weird. It's really weird. Like, I feel like I'm going a little crazy because everyone. I've read tons of articles about, like, robots, robots, but it sounds like the practical experiences, they don't work. They don't do the things or you and. Or you can't buy them.

[Jared Newman]

It is a very hard problem to solve. Like, anything involving, like, limbs and all that. That's why, like, I wrote about another laundry folding robot last year. It was one that, like, their. Their idea was like, it was like lamp lamps, and then the lamps are actually robot arms that turn into Jesus. And they released this, like, very flashy concept video, and a bunch of people pre ordered it based on just this rendered video that is not actually the robot. And they would not show, like, a prototype of it actually working.

[Robert Evans]

Right.

[Jared Newman]

And it is. It's just like there's all these edge cases of any kind of garment you have to pick up and deal with, like, getting a. Having all the training to deal with all that takes forever. And nobody's figured that out yet.

[Ed Zicher]

If. Would any of this be solvable if we weren't so committed to having the robots look humanoid? No, like, like, if there was, like, a big tube. All right, here comes my idea.

[Ed Zetron]

You've cracked the code.

[Covino and Rich]

It's a big tube.

[Ed Zicher]

Yeah. I'm having an idea. Right. As a standup comedian that no one else here at CES has had. But, like, if there was, like, a big tube and you dumped your clothes in and then somehow there was, like, a vacuum space. Okay. Nope. That. I don't know. There was somehow a way to, like, stretch the clothes flat, like, create tension in the fabric no matter what the shape is.

[Carissa Bell]

Engineers suspended in the tube.

[Ed Zicher]

You guys writing this down? Yes, it's in the tube. Okay, you're with me. I like this. This is good. I've got buy in so far. And then somehow there could be, like, a wire that, like, bisects that and then it at least folds in half. And then like does the same, you know, but like, it's not a.

[Robert Evans]

It's not a humanoid.

[Ed Zicher]

It's a machine.

[Robert Evans]

It's not a.

[Ed Zicher]

It's not a. My buddy.

[Jared Newman]

You even have to identify though, like where the edges of the clothes are. And that itself is not easy to do.

[Ed Zetron]

It's just lasers you're describing. It's like, what do we need a robot to do? I could make food for me. Ah, not really.

[Robert Evans]

Laundry.

[Ed Zetron]

Not really. You can do a TikTok.

[Robert Evans]

You want to be.

[Ed Zetron]

Do you want to see something cheat at rock paper scissors? Because I'm constantly annoyed that I can't find a better person. As a rock paper scissors champion, I have never been able to be defeated by anyone. It's just so fucking weird. But you know what? Changing subjects. Did you find anything you actually liked? Either of you?

[Jared Newman]

I can go, please. Pebble.

[Ed Zetron]

Okay. Okay. I've heard pebble get mentioned a few times. What was pebble up to? This.

[Jared Newman]

Well, so they, you know, they're re. They're doing new watches. They're back. And it's, you know, it's one of those things that is just like a passion project, which, you know, I feel like. And I can accept it's kind of like authentic. It's the same thing with like clicks, you know, it's like these people that, yeah, they know it's not for everybody. They just want this thing to exist and they put it into existence.

[Ed Zetron]

And we got Michael coming on on Friday. We'll talk about that.

[Jared Newman]

I mean, I respect that kind of thing. And I think the pebble watches are great.

[Ed Zetron]

I just think they're really. So it's just. It's the watches ring as well.

[Jared Newman]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

So.

[Jared Newman]

So they're starting with the, the watches and now they have the thing called the index, I believe it's called. Yeah. And you wear it on your index finger and it's basically just a button that you can push to take a note and then like a voice note. Yeah. Do you have a voice note?

[Ed Zicher]

That's cool.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

Do you have to speak into the ring?

[Jared Newman]

I think you can. No, I think you can just.

[Ed Zicher]

There's a little microphone in it.

[Jared Newman]

Yeah.

[Ed Zicher]

Does it make a noise or can you record people secretly?

[Jared Newman]

It's not persistent. It's like a push to talk kind of thing.

[Ed Zicher]

But you can break state law.

[Jared Newman]

Yeah, I think you can break state law.

[Ed Zetron]

Not in Nevada, it's a one party state.

[Ed Zicher]

Interesting. In New York it's a two party consent.

[Ed Zetron]

I thought New York was a one party state.

[Ed Zicher]

No, I believe in New York because I break it all the time.

[Ed Zetron]

So the nsa, Chloe.

[Ed Zicher]

I shouldn't A, admit that on a podcast and then B, do an evil laugh after.

[Ed Zetron]

She meant parody. She meant sig word. Parody of.

[Jared Newman]

But.

[Ed Zetron]

So it's just a record. It doesn't do any health stuff?

[Jared Newman]

No, there's no health stuff. There's no any of that. And then I think there's like a secondary function function where maybe you can like program some stuff if you wanted to do something else.

[Ed Zetron]

How much?

[Jared Newman]

Oh, you're putting on me a spot here. Something like $100 75 dimes is I'm ugly. I mean, it's presentable. I think there's a. There's a button on it. So I guess however you feel about.

[Ed Zetron]

The thing is, I can see the use for that. Like, I don't like voice notes at all. Like, I don't like hearing myself speak.

[Jared Newman]

Well, I think it will transcribe.

[Ed Zetron]

I've never listened to a single episode of this show which everyone listening to this who works I heart is going to love. And it's like I can't hear myself speak. But if I could do a transcription, I might actually buy it. That'd be the first thing I've seen at CES where I'm like, I would purchase that.

[Jared Newman]

Yeah. I think more broadly that, you know, they're just things. They're mantras. Sort of not even a mantra, but just like, it's this dude, he's done all right for himself in tech and he just like, wants to make cool gadgets that he doesn't see in the market and whatever.

[Ed Zetron]

I. You know what? I like that.

[Ed Zicher]

Reporting live on the Pebble Index ring. It really looks like a ring that somebody is using to record you.

[Jared Newman]

Let me see, Let me see a sketchy ring.

[Ed Zetron]

Turn this towards me. Oh, yeah.

[Jared Newman]

Like.

[Ed Zicher]

Like it really looks like. No, no, I don't have a microphone in my ring.

[Ed Zetron]

It's like the hat that Homer Simpson wore with the camera in it. But a ring, like, just like. Yeah, I'm just clicking this nondescript giant black button. What are you doing?

[Robert Evans]

Nothing.

[Ed Zetron]

Now say all the crimes you committed. Tell me all your secrets. No, I can't move my thumb. I can't move my thumb at all. I now actually know I'm now going to start critiquing this. So you have to. Is it one you can click once and it will record? Because if you have to hold it the whole fucking time, that might be.

[Jared Newman]

I Cannot recall.

[Ed Zetron]

That's fine.

[Jared Newman]

It's.

[Ed Zetron]

You know what I mean? The benefit of the doubt. They wouldn't do something so fucking stupid. Yeah, we're going to the fucking stupid.

[Ed Zicher]

Fun to watch. Ed changes like, oh, I like that now. Trashing everything, then hearing something, then like, becoming an optimist, then immediately being like, no, no, no, no, no, fuck that.

[Adam Conover]

No.

[Jared Newman]

That's a good instinct to have, though.

[Robert Evans]

No.

[Ed Zetron]

Also, we've got plenty of people who won't.

[Adam Conover]

We got plenty.

[Ed Zetron]

We got fucking sell side analysts here as well. Carissa, anything you've been enjoying?

[Carissa Bell]

I saw some robotic sneakers that were kind of cool.

[Ed Zetron]

Tell me more.

[Advertisement Voice]

What do you mean?

[Carissa Bell]

So they're sneakers that attach to a kind of exoskeleton.

[Ed Zicher]

Oh.

[Carissa Bell]

And they're meant for people who can't, like, walk long distances or want to be able to walk more.

[Ed Zetron]

Robert Evans has been using, like, an exoskeleton.

[Jared Newman]

ISOs.

[Ed Zetron]

Please tell me what.

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah, these ones are different because they attach to a special shoe and they're battery powered. And then you can kind of. It learns your gait the first 20 steps or so. And then as you're walking, it just kind of like pushes you up a little bit. It's a very strange sensation for somebody.

[Ed Zetron]

Who doesn't have mobility issues. Yeah.

[Carissa Bell]

Doesn't really have trouble walking. But like, three hours later, my feet were hurting so bad after being on them for four or five hours, and I was thinking, like, maybe that would feel kind of good right now.

[Advertisement Voice]

No, I've got.

[Ed Zetron]

I've got an ankle injury. That sounds great. I did see another one, and every time I see them, like, my hater instinct kicks in. Then I'm like, no, actually, this is what technology should do.

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

That it can help you if you've been walking too much or if you have serious mobility issues.

[Carissa Bell]

The downside is it cost $4,500.

[Ed Zetron]

That actually doesn't surprise me.

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

Like, that if. If I hear that and I'm like, okay, it literally helps people who can't walk much walk 4500. I'm like, that's actually reasonable. I did see a few of them and I'm actually kind of excited to see that because, I don't know, like, I realized it just went from being a huge hater, but, like, I have tons. Like, several family members with mobility issues. My mom, like, I myself, my ankle, when it gets bad, really gets fucked up and I can't walk. Like, literally two weeks ago, I was having problems with my feet. It's quite lovely.

[Ed Zicher]

Well, you are consistent in what you. In what you like and don't like.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah.

[Ed Zicher]

And that is. Is there a tangible, describable problem that this is solving?

[Ed Zetron]

Yes.

[Ed Zicher]

And I think the more physical. Not necessarily like, corporal, but the more physical a problem, the more you are going to be inclined to, like, the tech presentation of a solution.

[Ed Zetron]

Exactly. And it's like. I think. I also. I don't know, I think that's what technology is meant to do. It's meant to allow you to do things you can't do, to streamline things to. To make things easier. That's cool. And there were quite a few of them. I. I want more of this. Like, let those who can't walk. That's if. Is there anything more tech, technological than that?

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah, the accessibility stuff is actually kind of interesting. I'm always looking out for that.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah.

[Carissa Bell]

I was writing about it this year and so many times, it's hard to find anything like that because so much of it is just. Yeah. Cramming tech into products that don't need it or, you know, all the. The crap that we're used to seeing here. Smart belts and just weird stuff. So whenever.

[Jared Newman]

Belts.

[Carissa Bell]

Do you remember Belty from, like, years ago?

[Jared Newman]

Wait, do you kind of remember that?

[Ed Zetron]

Belty.

[Carissa Bell]

It was called belt.

[Ed Zetron]

What is Belty?

[Carissa Bell]

Oh, man. This is from probably, like 10 years ago. It was a smart belt. Do you remember that year at CES when, like, Internet of Things was kind of just.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Carissa Bell]

And like, everything was just like a flower pot that's connected to the Internet of this. And it was a belt that I think could automatically adjust. Like, I was like, maybe you ate more or something.

[Ed Zetron]

Oh, God. Okay. Well, sorry, I'm ate my fifth piece of chicken. Well, actually, we're gonna go back to shit robots, though, because everyone has kind of mentioned AGI Bot or Agibot or however the fuck you says. And this is the TikTok robot you saw. What was that?

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah, so there was two. They have two different humanoids. One is a smaller one that was the dancy one. It has, like, these bright yellow shoes. They have a larger one that's about. About five feet, like my height maybe. And they are humanoid robots. They can walk around, the little one can dance. They have some kind of, like, AI functionality in them. So they're meant like the large one. What they explained to me is that it's meant for kind of like either for businesses, hospitality use cases, like, maybe you put one in a museum and it can welcome guests and kind of like, show them where to go.

[Ed Zetron]

Can it do that, though?

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah. So what's interesting is this is a Chinese company that's making them.

[Ed Zetron]

Okay.

[Carissa Bell]

And they already have sold several thousand of these in China. We went to another robotics company booth. And the whole spiel of this booth was that the booth is run entirely by robots. And there's like a human guy there who's kind of like, can answer a question for you if you want. But the booth is just these two robots, and they were the Adjibot robots. And so the larger one was there and it was. Had a little microphone. You could talk to it and you could have this, like, interaction with it. So I came up and I was like, okay, roast me.

[Ed Zetron]

Okay.

[Carissa Bell]

And it actually, you know, it started off kind of tame.

[Robert Evans]

It was.

[Ed Zicher]

But then it got pretty mean. Yeah.

[Carissa Bell]

Well, then I said. I was like. Actually, I was like, can you be meaner? Like, can you do more?

[Ed Zetron]

How mean did it again?

[Carissa Bell]

Not too bad. I made fun of what I was wearing and couldn't see what you were wearing.

[Ed Zicher]

It could.

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah, it could. And then at the end, I was like, okay, well, you know, all good. Let's have a fist bump. And it was like, great.

[Robert Evans]

And it.

[Carissa Bell]

It actually did it.

[Ed Zetron]

What did it.

[Ed Zicher]

What did it say about what you were wearing? I. I want to judge this from a joker addict standpoint.

[Carissa Bell]

Honestly, I don't remember exactly. It was just kind of was like, oh, and you're wearing that. Like, I. Like you're making fun of me, but like, you're like. It was. It was kind of generic, but.

[Ed Zicher]

Okay.

[Jared Newman]

Then you wanted to turn into the boxing robot. So you can.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, I. I wanted it to be ruder. I want to find this thing and.

[Carissa Bell]

But you're able to have like a back and forth. There's a slight delay when you say something, maybe two, three seconds for it to come up with a response. But you can actually. And its voice actually sounded pretty natural in a way that most robot voices.

[Ed Zetron]

What models was it like? Was it using a model? Was it like. Did they explain any of that?

[Carissa Bell]

It is. I'm not sure. I imagine that that company, it was called intbot. That was the booth that had these, like, customized versions.

[Ed Zetron]

And that wasn't AGI. Was that Agibot?

[Carissa Bell]

Yes, it was an Agibot robot. But the company that was showing them off was Int Bot. And I guess they had customized. They had bought these robots and someh now customize them for their.

[Ed Zicher]

But the. What you're chatting with, it's not just chat GPT.

[Carissa Bell]

No.

[Ed Zicher]

Or open AI or whatever.

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah. I think it's a combination of things. I think they probably use several different models, and then they also have, like, cameras and sensors. So they know, you know, I want.

[Ed Zetron]

To go back and ask it about Tiananmen Square. I'm sorry. I want to immediately. I want to be like, what do you think of Winnie the Pooh? And it just goes, get it? Because, like, just looks at me personally. Because you look fat. I'm like, ah, No, I. I'm actually gonna say it sounds like it worked, which is unusual. That's genuinely unusual.

[Ed Zicher]

The nicest thing I've ever heard you say about a robot.

[Ed Zetron]

It works, kind of. But what was the. What's the. What was the purpose? Yeah.

[Carissa Bell]

For intbot?

[Jared Newman]

Yeah.

[Carissa Bell]

I'm actually not sure because we just went because we wanted to, like.

[Ed Zetron]

Show God fucking.

[Carissa Bell]

Their whole premise is that our booth is just run by robots. So we're like, well, we gotta go check that out. And then we just. We talked to it and made a TikTok. And I didn't find out what they're trying to do with them, but you.

[Jared Newman]

Should have asked it, like, can you grab me some press materials and hand them to me? And then it would, like, fail.

[Ed Zetron]

Then it starts trying to fold them. Oh, my God, I love it. We get to a thing. It's like, yeah, it works. Why, though? And they're like, oh, fuck, we just.

[Robert Evans]

Did this for the yucks.

[Ed Zetron]

I could introduce you to a museum.

[Ed Zicher]

So off. Okay. On the broader theme of why, though.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah.

[Ed Zicher]

I was walking around today at the convention center and wondering, what is the. Not what is the point of ces, but pretty close. Like, how effective is CES and in what way for the majority of people who are here?

[Ed Zetron]

Effective at what?

[Ed Zicher]

Well, that's sort of. I'm asking as a complete naive user, you know, like. But it's like, are people. I understand that, like, there were buyers from Sam's Club walking around being like, we're looking for a new. I don't know what the fuck they're looking for. But, like, I understand that if you, like, there's, you know, some small proportion of buyers who are looking for some small proportion of specific tech. But, like, a lot of people, it seems like they're just sort of in booths showing off stuff that, like, largely already exists, maybe with, like, a slightly new extra spice. But, like, for the most part, it's not blowing anybody's minds. And then a lot of people are walking by, picking it up, going, oh. Setting it down, and continuing walking. And it's like, what effect beyond just like a trip to Vegas that is justifiable via work.

[Jared Newman]

Yeah.

[Ed Zicher]

What effect is this having in most people's.

[Jared Newman]

I mean, business? As somebody who's. I'm not super pessimistic about ces, despite how ridiculous you've been here longer than I. I don't know. I guess, I guess for me. And maybe this is the point too.

[Ed Zetron]

You love leaflets.

[Jared Newman]

I love leaflets. No, I, I just, you know, there's probably some value in just getting a bunch of people into one place.

[Ed Zetron]

Sure. Yeah, sure.

[Ed Zicher]

That I can.

[Jared Newman]

We don't have a lot of that anymore.

[Ed Zetron]

You know, we're gonna, we're gonna rotate our hours. We're gonna go to an ad break. Coming up now, an advertisement for Chumlee, the robot that's based on Chumlee from Pawn Stars. A word I can say because people think I am talking about pornography.

[Advertisement Voice]

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[Ed Zetron]

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[Covino and Rich]

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[Ed Zetron]

Did it move?

[Covino and Rich]

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[Ed Zetron]

This week on Point Game with me.

[Advertisement Voice]

CJ Toledano and Isaiah Thomas. It shared the incredible backstory on NBA handshakes, how they're created, how they stick with you. So check it out here on Point.

[Robert Evans]

Game, you better be locked in on.

[Ed Zetron]

These handshakes because when the camera's on.

[Robert Evans]

There'S no time to mess up.

[Ed Zetron]

So it's really a big thing where.

[Robert Evans]

Guys is in the locker room.

[Ed Zetron]

You look over there in the corner.

[Robert Evans]

They'Re working on a handshake over there. They're like, man, what do you think we're doing on this handshake?

[Ed Zetron]

So it's serious.

[Robert Evans]

And if you really watch, nobody's really messing up.

[Ed Zetron]

No, everybody just. Everybody's just tapped in.

[Robert Evans]

And the crazy thing about it is LeBron is doing handshakes with teammates from 10 years ago that he hasn't played with in years. And he remembers everything.

[Advertisement Voice]

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[Ed Zetron]

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[Advertisement Voice]

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[Ed Zetron]

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[Robert Evans]

Apply in Illinois 21 and over.

[Ed Zetron]

Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void. In Ontario, restrictions apply. Vet must win to receive bonus bets which expire in seven days. Minimum odds required for additional terms and responsible gaming resources. See DKNG limited time offer. And we're back in the room, and once again we're joined by Carissa Bella Van Gadget.

[Carissa Bell]

Hello.

[Ed Zetron]

Jared Newman of the advisory and newsletter.

[Jared Newman]

Yo.

[Ed Zetron]

And nearly said newsletter. Wrong. And of course, Chloe Radcliffe, actress of Is this Thing On?

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

And the stand up comedian.

[Ed Zicher]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

And we're back and we're just talking about how and why people do ces. And I'm getting this prevailing thing, just feeling about conferences, conferences in general. Jesus Christ. They are just there to give people something to do. Like they put people in a room. Yeah, there's to an extent. But, like, I'm gonna admit, I don't go to conferences in general. I've never run PR firm since 2012. Like, I've just not gone. It's never affected. Every time I've gone to a conference other than ces, I've just been like, why? And it's like, oh, we got to meet salespeople from this. And it's like, okay, but. But why though? And there's so much stuff here, especially if this year feels like a landmark year for just shit that don't exist. And I say that remembering the Web three Metaverse year, even that one, they seemed to be like, we have a new thinner TV that's also wet for some reason. Like. Like we. They were trying new things with TVs and sound bars, and I guess we've got some of that. But it feels dominated by just vaporware. Vaporware. Like foot. Maybe it was worse during the Indiegogo boom. You remember the 2014, 2015 Indiegogo boom.

[Jared Newman]

When they were down in the bowels of the Venetian, the Eureka hall, where.

[Ed Zetron]

It was just like the most insane shit. Like, it's a cooler that's also a razor blade to kill people.

[Ed Zicher]

I want to donate to that.

[Ed Zetron]

No, that's the thing. Indiegogo, the Indiegogo fraud generation was fucking cool because it was just shit that was impossible to make.

[Advertisement Voice]

And they were.

[Ed Zetron]

We've raised $500,000. The money laundering operations that go Through Indiegogo have funded this and we'll deliver it in 10 years and then the company will shut down in three. Like that I found kind of like.

[Jared Newman]

Honestly, laundry folding robots.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, well, laundry mate, rip in piss. Like they. The most obvious fake one I respect. They got like, it was like a tower laundry mat. It was like this weird tower and it was never clear how it worked. And every year they were like, next year this is hitting consumers. And then they just died.

[Ed Zicher]

The only laundering that Indiegogo robots can do is financing.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, but I feel like this is like a legendary year because they're trying to pretend robots work. They try because the reason you can't do robots mass for mass consuming, mass consumer audiences is because training for edge cases is fucking difficult. Yeah, I don't know, it's. It's a shame because I'd love a robot. I'd love like.

[Jared Newman]

Well, I think, I think a laundry folding robot is like a million dollar idea if it actually works.

[Ed Zicher]

But it doesn't work. This tube idea.

[Ed Zetron]

Thumbs, revisit the tubes.

[Carissa Bell]

Have you heard of Indiegogo?

[Ed Zetron]

Actually yeah. The tube idea is a little real. For Indiegogo we've got to do like a movie that never gets made or like a card game made by like a, a disgraced substacker like. Or a board game by a guy with an allegations section on Wikipedia. Like that's all we do on here. It's just weird because I say this with a little sadness because like I may seem like a cynic, but I'm broken hearted romantic. If we had like a natural laundry folding robot. That's cool. Yeah, that'd be cool. I'd love that.

[Jared Newman]

Did you. Did you were on the show floor?

[Ed Zetron]

Yes.

[Jared Newman]

So what did you see? What did you like?

[Ed Zetron]

That's a fucking long cloth. I walked around.

[Ed Zicher]

Don't ask me that.

[Ed Zetron]

I walked around Eureka park today and I walked around, I was about to say Kentia hall.

[Jared Newman]

Those of us who've been to E3.

[Ed Zetron]

That'S a whole other, you know, the sky that Kentier hall, if you don't know is. So E3 is the former games journalism, the games equivalent of this show. And Kentia hall was like the scariest place to go with a media badge. You'd go down there, every head would snap to your media badge. Stop citizen. Like Morrowind. Like you'd stolen a piece of bread from a shopkeep. And they'd be like, they want to talk because they want to talk to you. Because games is just games. You write about the game this was.

[Jared Newman]

All the very small like developers that had nothing going on. And so like not like, you know, like not like Activision. Yeah, this is it for them.

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

And I went to Eureka park and everything I saw was a ChatGPT wrapper. And I went upstairs and I was like, fuck me up, show me something. And I saw a wi fi barbecue. I feel like I see one every fucking year. And I wanted to see. I didn't even see anything funny.

[Jared Newman]

I was, I was trying to noodle on this idea. Like I don't think this is the right term but like AI slop product. Do you know what I'm talking about?

[Ed Zetron]

No, no, there's a real slop nature to it. It was just like, what is it? Hey, you want a document analysis?

[Jared Newman]

Yeah. Well, also like, well like an example I'm thinking of is like, I think it was hisense, like they had a oven and then the oven had like a very small display on it, smaller than a phone and they were showing like you could be like I'm in the mood for pizza. And then it would like generate a pizza recipe for you, you know what I mean? So it's like the recipe itself is slop, but then also like the implementation of AI is slop. Do you know what I mean?

[Ed Zetron]

You're just looking at this tiny little screen. It's like roll out the dough. It's just.

[Ed Zicher]

And again. And I've made this point before on this very podcast, earlier today and yesterday. But just to reiterate, if you are going to look up a pizza recipe, you're going to look it up on your phone, which is a small screen of course. And then if you look it up on your smart oven, you are also looking it up on a small screen. It is not eliminating any steps in the process or any screen in the. Oh, it'll.

[Jared Newman]

It will turn the oven on for you.

[Ed Zetron]

Oh fuck.

[Robert Evans]

Fuck.

[Ed Zicher]

It'll turn the oven on.

[Ed Zetron]

Fuck. Has this ever happened to you? And just bashing your hand on different parts of the oven. How I turn oven on, I am.

[Ed Zicher]

Woman, I know this instinctive, but I.

[Robert Evans]

Do not make happen.

[Ed Zetron]

It's like a Tim Robinson bit. What do I do? What do I do? And then the screen goes turn on oven. Finally turns the oven on. It's like the thing they keep coming back to that I actually liked was just a fifteen hundred dollar TV with a built in sound bar with like micro LED. I was just like fuck yeah, great, awesome. TVs are getting thinner and they're getting sound bars in them. And that's why everything has AI in it. Because it's very clear that it's becoming really cheap to make thin and big good looking televisions. But the actual difference between like a fancy LG one and a combination of different letters you can buy on Amazon that most people can't fucking tell. I'm sorry, it's.

[Jared Newman]

It's. That is. That's a whole other thing. But yeah, there's like micro LED and now Mike micro rgb. I don't know.

[Ed Zicher]

I don't.

[Jared Newman]

Both of them. If you stand in front of them, it looks like you're like looking into.

[Ed Zetron]

The eye of God.

[Jared Newman]

But, like, they're kind of the same.

[Ed Zetron]

But I kind of.

[Jared Newman]

I love it.

[Ed Zetron]

I genuinely, genuinely love the fact that, like, a good looking TV is easy to get now and you can get them, everyone. They're really, like, really good. Like, even the kind of cheap, cheap ones are pretty good. Like. Yeah, I can notice the difference because I stare at screens all the time, but I think most people would be really happy otherwise. I'm just like, sure I want to like some. I genuinely, I would love to. I would love to be taken by the magic of ces. It doesn't. The magic's got, like, it's.

[Ed Zicher]

What do you think would. Other than a laundry folding robot, what do you think would. Like, what would take you. What would.

[Ed Zetron]

So I think there are like, magical ideas. They've had like, wireless power that if Phil hears me talking about, he'll come and fucking kill me. But like, wireless power. Bluetooth that works. Perhaps unbreakable Bluetooth would be very popular at CES where Bluetooth. My fucking headphones cut out constantly. Like, something like that might be kind of a boring demo, but it's like, I don't know, a WI fi router that doesn't stop working after six months. Like every problem is just like, sucks.

[Jared Newman]

TP Link has a router with a AI agent now that you can talk to.

[Ed Zetron]

That's cool. I got a TP Deco TP Link Deco I had to throw away because.

[Jared Newman]

It was so wifi won't work, but you can, like yell at it and it'll do therapy for you.

[Ed Zetron]

You're from TP Link. You listen to this? Deco sucks. It blows. You suck. I spent so much money on that, I can't even sell them on ebay. God damn.

[Carissa Bell]

Did you see the IKEA smart home stuff?

[Robert Evans]

No.

[Ed Zetron]

Tell me, tell me about that.

[Carissa Bell]

So that was one that we thought was pretty cool. A couple of my colleagues saw it. They have a Whole new line of, like, smart plugs, smart light bulbs, like, connected home stuff. Very, like, kind of boring. But the stuff that you want from Ikea, like, cheap connected light bulbs and smart plugs that will actually work and, like, work with real IoT standards that you want and not, you know, I don't know if anyone here has tried to install smart bulbs in their homes. And they're. They're extremely expensive or they're, like, really cheap, like, off brand ones from Amazon that never end up working or, like, the app breaks or the company goes under and, like, yeah, you kind of want a company that's used to making 40 million of everything to do this kind of thing, because then you just.

[Ed Zetron]

Know it's always like, an industrial.

[Ed Zicher]

Yeah, it's gonna work, and it will. They can do it at scale in a way that makes us be able to pay a reasonable price.

[Jared Newman]

We have. We have four light bulbs in our bedroom. And so I will be like, alexa, turn off the lights. And about, about, like, 10% of the time, one of the lights will stay on. Of the four I have, I have.

[Ed Zetron]

Lutron in my house, and one day the box just stopped connecting. So I just have to use the fucking light switch. And I'm so spiteful that I just refuse. But wait, it sounds like these things work, though. Carissa.

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah, I haven't tried them, but, I mean, it's ikea, so I feel like we have. I have. I have decent amount of confidence that, okay, they can do this.

[Ed Zetron]

I hope so.

[Carissa Bell]

I mean, I have some smart light bulbs in my home, and they're like an off brand Chinese one, and they're the kind you can change color, and we set them to specific colors for the specific rooms, but we can never change them back. And then, like, every few months, like, the app breaks, and then they like the totally wrong color, and then we just can't use those lights until we fix it. It's so frustrating.

[Ed Zetron]

It's like the product I want from CES is shit that just works and they don't care. That's a shame as well, because I actually like the smart home stuff. I like the Roseanne Clapper, except you use your voice. It's fun, it's good. But again, one thing breaks. It's like wifi that works. I don't think that'd make a good CES demo, but I was looking through your Engadget coverage, and I want to talk about the dreamy robot vacuum with the legs.

[Jared Newman]

Oh, I saw that too.

[Carissa Bell]

Just the Cyber X.

[Ed Zetron]

Yes. What are these? Legs. Tell me, how do they protrude? Do they crawl?

[Carissa Bell]

So the promotional image they sent me at first had it kind of like standing upright like a spider on these legs.

[Robert Evans]

Horrifying.

[Carissa Bell]

But they're sort of like more like treads cover. They're like legs that kind of have these rubber treads. And so when I saw it move, it moves more like a tank. It kind of rolls up the stairs and down the stairs.

[Ed Zetron]

They look like little chainsaws. It's like, chainsaw man.

[Carissa Bell]

It's terrifying. What was not clear, though, is that that whole unit with the legs is actually just like a little, like, docking station for the actual robot vacuum.

[Ed Zetron]

It's like a vehicle.

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah. So the actual robot vacuum, like, zooms in there and parks itself, and then the thing goes up the stairs, and then it can send out the robot to actually do the vacuuming. What this means, though, is that it can't actually clean the stairs themselves. Apparently, Roborocks can climb and vacuum the stairs. This one, which is just a concept, can just, like, move up.

[Ed Zetron]

I'm showing everyone. Just for the listeners at home, I'm showing everyone a video, which works really well. It's a concept. So I'm giving them some affordance for how slow this is. I find this kind of cool. I kind of like. You know what? When it comes to robot vacuums, I'm oddly, like, generous, especially because this is just like, very fun to watch. It's like kind of shoving its crotch into the stairs as it slides up.

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah. And then when it makes that bend and it starts to go down, it's kind of funny because it's sort of like, half of it goes up.

[Jared Newman]

I think that's cool.

[Ed Zetron]

I think it's cool.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Jared Newman]

People have asked for years for a robot vacuum that can do, like. Like, multiple floors.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah.

[Jared Newman]

Without having to pick it up and whatever.

[Ed Zetron]

I like them. I just find the robot rock that I have doesn't clean dust sometimes, which is a classic exhibit of the floor.

[Jared Newman]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

But you know what?

[Robert Evans]

The ro.

[Ed Zetron]

I feel like robot vacuums are, like, the state. Like, they're the, like, block and tackle of ces. You see, I've been seeing robot vacuums here for years. It's like, watch. Watching them keep going.

[Ed Zicher]

Say, hey, little buddy. Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

Oh, you got a arm now.

[Robert Evans]

Nice.

[Ed Zicher]

I feel biased against robot vacuums because I think I've, like, lived with a roommate who had one, and it never worked.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah.

[Ed Zicher]

That was, like, one experience a long time ago. But just, like, less than a month ago, I shot a. A whole production piece in Denver, and our whole small crew was staying in one big Airbnb in. In, like, this big, big fancy house in Denver. And they had robot vacuums on every floor because for. For this exact reason. So I bet these people would love robot vacuums that can climb stairs, but they didn't turn off. I don't know why. Whatever it was. All of these robot vacuums were programmed to turn on at midnight, and they were so loud and so scary, and you had no idea what was going on. And so we, like, my boyfriend and I were sleeping in a bed here, functionally, and just. We were. Us asleep. And then from that far away, you just hear this horrible, like. And then downstairs, what my. One of our crew who was staying in the basement, her robot vacuum actually pushed her door open, came into her room in the middle of the night, and she was like, I genuinely thought I had an invader, like a home invader.

[Ed Zetron]

I would have.

[Ed Zicher]

I thought I was going to be assaulted. And it's just a Roomba.

[Ed Zetron]

What a horrifying.

[Ed Zicher]

I would never sort of have a personal vendetta against robot vacuums.

[Ed Zetron]

It's also just like. The problem is, is that, like every robot thing, it's the edge cases, it's the shit between the corners, that's actually the problem. When it comes to sweeping the floor, that's pretty easy. If you have a perfectly flat surface, it's good. It's just like, we all want it to work. Have you tried any of the wet, dry ones? You've seen those?

[Jared Newman]

I'm intrigued by them, but I've never.

[Ed Zetron]

Just the idea of, like, having a little robot that can just spooge on my floor feels like. Like, I don't. They already seem to do pretty bad with the brushes. I don't want them to have the ability to, like. Sorry. Ejaculate. It's like an A quid. God. Yeah. I'm sorry.

[Jared Newman]

All right.

[Ed Zicher]

Oh, buddy, you got excited.

[Robert Evans]

Calm down.

[Jared Newman]

I think that's kind of, you know, that's the core disconnect of cs, right? Like, you just want stuff that works a little better.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah.

[Jared Newman]

And that's not something that you can have a CES booth about. Like, it finally works well.

[Ed Zetron]

It did more but didn't work. That's often what it is, though, really. That's another CES tagline.

[Ed Zicher]

It's 2026.

[Carissa Bell]

The dreamy vacuum with the arm. It can change out the arm. It has a little cubby, and it's stationed, and it can change out the little claw thing for Like a vacuum nozzle.

[Ed Zetron]

Okay.

[Carissa Bell]

And, like, reach that arm up and, like, suck. Well, it's not that long, but it can. It's like going to corners or little spots that.

[Ed Zicher]

How can it see where it needs to go?

[Ed Zetron]

Radar?

[Carissa Bell]

I don't know. I asked them at their booth because they were demonstrating the kind of claw arm just sort of picking up balls and putting them in a basket. And I asked them if they could show me it going to fetch its little attachments.

[Ed Zetron]

And they said, no, they do not work. That just means they don't work. That doesn't happen.

[Carissa Bell]

They looked very alarmed that I asked.

[Ed Zetron]

Like, oh, yeah, no one's asked. That's. I love these moments, though, where you can see nobody. Like, there's like, 2,000 members of the media here. Nobody's being like, can you show me it do that.

[Ed Zicher]

I keep asking, but who cares when they tell me something? Because I just have so little repercussions for being.

[Ed Zetron]

This is why I asked you to be here. Did anyone have an answer?

[Ed Zicher]

It usually takes them, like, a couple. It takes people a couple tries. And then I would say probably two thirds of people have been able to answer the but who cares question. But it's just so. It's so clear that nobody's prepared. And I understand that I'm being incredibly brusque about it, but I'm also like, I don't know, man. You should have an answer for that.

[Ed Zetron]

I feel like you should. Yeah.

[Ed Zicher]

There was one cable stance where it's like, it looks really fancy and he's telling me all about it. And I was like, as far as I could glean, the only thing special about the cable was you can make it extra long. It wasn't. I was like, oh, are you saying, like, you can change out the heads of the cable and you can. Whatever. They were like all these little pieces. And then he was like, no, no, it's all the same head. You can't change it out. It's only USB C. But you can connect them. And I was like, so it's just really long.

[Ed Zetron]

Connect what?

[Ed Zicher]

Two USBC cables to each other to make a long usbc. And I wound. And I was like, but who cares? Like, why not just buy a lot? Sure, I guess. I, I.

[Ed Zetron]

No, I get it. Like, there.

[Ed Zicher]

It's just this kind of stuff where it's like, I just want to know the answer to is, so what?

[Ed Zetron]

It's kind of alarming that everyone doesn't have that answer.

[Ed Zicher]

Yeah, that's the thing. Yeah, I understand that. I am Being annoying in your face.

[Ed Zetron]

And I get that you're saying that and you're being nice, but also this feels like you should just be able to explain totally real easy. Because otherwise you paid like $25,000 a day to be in like the south hall to show off the Goobis microwave with AI or whatever it's called.

[Jared Newman]

There's often. There is often that question when you're looking at something. It's like, well, why couldn't I just do this? And then I don't know.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, neither do they.

[Jared Newman]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Robert Evans]

Well, like.

[Jared Newman]

Like I was at Lenovo's booth today, and they have their own.

[Ed Zetron]

What are they doing?

[Jared Newman]

I think I talked about this last year too. Like, they got cool hardware stuff.

[Ed Zetron]

Okay, I want to hear, please. That sounds fun.

[Jared Newman]

They have a gaming laptop. It's a concept, of course, but some to their credit, some of those concept things they.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

Henry Casey was mentioning the turning screen they actually made.

[Jared Newman]

Yes. And then they have a gaming laptop that goes from like regular 16 by 9 into like ultra wide.

[Ed Zetron]

Hell yeah.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

I fucking love that shit. I. I know. I love that shit.

[Jared Newman]

Great.

[Ed Zetron]

It's like, probably insanely expensive, but so what I'm guessing is it like you pull out.

[Jared Newman]

It's a rollable display. If you just press a button and it.

[Carissa Bell]

Yes.

[Ed Zetron]

Let's fucking go.

[Jared Newman]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

It's a consumer electronics show. Show me some weird shit.

[Jared Newman]

Great. But that was like in the back. And then they have an AI chatbot for Windows.

[Ed Zetron]

That's what is the reason they claim that is.

[Jared Newman]

I could not get an answer.

[Ed Zetron]

What did he. About that.

[Jared Newman]

Usual AI stuff. Like, you have a document. You have a document. Yeah, it's like, you have a document and then you ask about the document and it tells you about the document and summarizes your notification. And it was like. It was like, well, why wouldn't I just use, you know, copilot or chatgpt? And there wasn't really a clear.

[Ed Zetron]

Get him out of here. Get him out of here now. Just fucking.

[Robert Evans]

You'll leave.

[Carissa Bell]

Guards.

[Ed Zetron]

Guards. Yeah, I. That's.

[Jared Newman]

They also had people telling me that it was on device language models. And then like the product manager was like, oh, no, that's. That's incorrect.

[Ed Zicher]

Wait, what's the.

[Ed Zetron]

So large language models traditionally are run in the cloud, so you have to have a persistent Internet connection There are on device language models, they require a shit ton of RAM to run because large language models are extremely RAM dependent.

[Ed Zicher]

Have you downloaded Functionally, most people asking the stupidest question, have you downloaded A file that is the size of the large language model. Are you holding the whole.

[Ed Zetron]

No, no, not in this case. The product manager.

[Jared Newman]

Yes, in this case they were not in theory, yeah. You would have to have this pretty powerful computer requiring a lot of space and whatever and it still wouldn't work as well as like ChatGPT. Yeah, but then. And you would. And, but yeah, yeah, I was asking about it because you're dealing with like they were taking screenshots of what you were doing so that they could summarize and it's like, well, I don't really want that data going up who knows where.

[Ed Zetron]

And so it's like, finally you can tell me what I'm looking at. Yeah, how else would I know? I'm not looking at. That's such a shit. Because Lenovo makes some reliable share and the was the Legion go their handheld gaming PCs. Pretty cool. Did they have anything like that?

[Jared Newman]

No new gaming handheld stuff this year.

[Ed Zetron]

Well, thank God we're using all the world's high bandwidth RAM to generate various wife tubes. Like it's. It's just such a shame. Now Chris, I'm going to change the weird company to choose for something that is actually kind of interesting. Met is doing some stuff with this armband.

[Robert Evans]

Right.

[Ed Zetron]

And I was nearly ready to make fun of it as an autist myself, but this one that can see facial gestures. Can you? Or like our emotions and such for the blind though.

[Carissa Bell]

Yes. So this is actually a startup that is. So the startup is independent from Meta, but they made this wrist based wearable device that's supposed to work in conjunction with Meta's smart glasses. So the idea is that you're wearing Meta's smart glasses. They have these kind of like real time AI capabilities. So I'm talking to you. The video is on. That's going back to an app that's run by the startup.

[Ed Zetron]

Right.

[Carissa Bell]

The app can detect. They have these models to detect kind of like facial expressions, gestures. There's a whole bunch of stuff you can customize.

[Ed Zetron]

Right.

[Carissa Bell]

And then this wristband will send a signal to the wristband and it vibrates in different patterns based on like if you do a thumbs up, it might vibrate like in a certain way. If you do a thumbs down or you frown or you.

[Ed Zetron]

You know, for someone who's visually impaired, that actually sounds quite useful.

[Ed Zicher]

If somebody is talking to a blind person and they give a thumbs up, that person.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, actually that's a good. That's a good point.

[Ed Zicher]

Anybody who.

[Ed Zetron]

That's a good point.

[Ed Zicher]

Anybody who thinks that they can communicate with a blind person via hand gestures should be walked off.

[Ed Zetron]

You are doing the jack off gesture at me. My arm band's fucking telling me you are just doing this with your hand.

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah, well, I just could do more subtle ones too. And I think it's also, they said that, you know, there's people who, you know, they're talking to their kids and they're like, oh, I never get that feedback from my kids of like knowing how their.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, that's.

[Ed Zicher]

Their expressions get back in line.

[Carissa Bell]

No, no, they did say that. Yeah. They think that perhaps there's a use case for people who are neurodivergent who just like can see the facial expression but just like don't know what it means.

[Ed Zetron]

But I say this as someone with autism. If I heard someone say that to me, they might be blind by the end of the conversation. I, I will say this. If you're a visually impaired listener to the show, I would actually love easyetteroffline.com Please email me because I can see. Like, I don't experience your life. I'm actually genuinely curious if these things happen because I know last year there was this Kane that talked and we kind of like, we made fun of it, but it was like people were like, no, this is actually really useful. And I want to know because I don't want to give people shit for something that's actually useful. The fact they're mentioning the neurodivergent thing really fucking pisses me off though, because that is like the experience of someone who does not have autism or anything related to that. Because it's just like, that's not how it, it fucking works. We're not sitting there like, we're. What is the. The bloke from Lie to Me where he's just looking for micro expressions. Nobody saw that show, okay? I saw it, okay? Yeah, it's just, mostly it's just Tim Roth going, you're lying, mate. And then like every scene is cut between like, like a picture of like Colin Powell and Bill Clinton. Like frowning at someone is like frowning if they should have the lie. To me, bloke at cs. You know what I'm. It's weird. Meta seems to have like oddly interesting accessibility stuff, though. Look, I have a mate who works over there. It's like they seem to be trying something there. And then there's all the other stuff that Meta does, like 10% of their revenue being from fraud in 2024, which is really.

[Ed Zicher]

Does that mean that somebody high up in some pyramid At Meta is actually well intentioned.

[Ed Zetron]

Yes. I must be clear. I think Meta is a deeply evil organization run by a scumbag. And when, when Mark Zuckerberg, I assume from natural causes, passes from this world, I'll throw a fucking party for that piece of shit. That being said, there are people at Meta I'm familiar with inaccessibility in particular, who actually give a shit.

[Ed Zicher]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

It's just they're not running the company and I think it might be sadly like an after effect of the larger product, but at the same time, if there's some fucking good for me. Yeah, it's just, it's hard to get.

[Jared Newman]

Excited about something from.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, exactly. It's like, especially because like my. The only Meta product I unashamedly loved was Portal. It's because it could. It like, it was a very. It's weirdly hard to find a thing to call someone from a TV and like on Christmas my kid and I might call my parents and it's like, it's easy for my dad and my mom to work and they just click and it works. And they of course discontinued this product because Meta is not. Yeah, Meta is not about connecting you to people. It's about showing you either like dogs barking or like dog whistles.

[Jared Newman]

Mostly AI dogs barking at this point point.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, like the worst AI AI generated.

[Jared Newman]

Like sprouts another head and then that head starts barking.

[Ed Zetron]

So I'm like being like reverse gangstalked by Meta though, because I don't get any AI slop.

[Robert Evans]

Oh really?

[Ed Zetron]

I've never been shown any.

[Ed Zicher]

I don't know that I get shown AI stuff.

[Ed Zetron]

I've seen other people's feeds and they are just like sloppy.

[Jared Newman]

I have a friend who's it's exclusively AI.

[Ed Zetron]

I get Gen Z people being like, showing a clearly homeless person pictures of like brain rot and this person in distress just being like, why am I being harassed by a man with broccoli hair and eight cameras? And it's like, oh God. But luckily I've trained my thing, so all I get is like silk and wind howl now, like shout out to Chloe and Abby and all those wonderful dogs. Everyone knows what I'm talking about. Just moving on. But yeah, like, I've had to train my feet. But it's a shame because it's like, I guess at some scale with a company like that, you do eventually do a good thing. Just most of the other things are bad.

[Jared Newman]

Do they still support the portal? Does it work?

[Ed Zetron]

It works for now.

[Ed Zicher]

What is the portal?

[Ed Zetron]

It's like, literally, it's just an HDMI camera. You connect to your TV and you can connect to someone else.

[Robert Evans]

It will.

[Ed Zetron]

It works really well.

[Ed Zicher]

You're looking at it on.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah. And it follows them.

[Ed Zicher]

Call for your tv.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah. And it follows you, like, very quite well as well. It's like, it was a cool product, which is why they stopped it. Because we can't have that.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

We can't be having you connect to people on Facebook.

[Ed Zicher]

No. No. Because you know what that does does? Takes you off of Facebook.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah. You can't be shown the feed, but it's like, it's interesting to see them try. Shit. It's just there's all the other stuff. Also, it's kind of rare to see a hyperscaler here because, like, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, they don't really. Amazon will have like a side thingy. I remember last year when I had a picture of the smiling man on my badge and I went into the Amazon thing, a woman stopped me and went, wow. She's. I mean, there are no good reactions to that picture and everyone knows it, but yeah, it's, it's. It's. They usually don't have a presence. So meta. Trying to do stuff is good. Like, right.

[Jared Newman]

Like, I don't know.

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

I'm like, try. I guess everyone is looking quite pained.

[Carissa Bell]

I mean, the smart glasses are interesting.

[Robert Evans]

They.

[Carissa Bell]

You know, I've written a lot about this. I have very mixed feelings about them because they're generally good products. You roast me every time I post on my Instagram.

[Robert Evans]

Meanwhile, I don't roast you.

[Ed Zetron]

I don't roast you. I'm nice to you.

[Ed Zicher]

You.

[Ed Zetron]

When did I last roast you? Come on.

[Carissa Bell]

No, you don't roast me. But I did one time post a poll of like, dude, these look good on me. And you were like. And you were. The first person instantly was like, that sounds absolutely not.

[Ed Zetron]

It's the Royal Orbison glasses. But anyway, you have complex feelings about this.

[Carissa Bell]

It's true. Because they are actually like a good product. If you use them, they work really well. The AI, some of the AI stuff, you're going to hate this. It's cool. The translation features, I've used them on vacation consistently.

[Ed Zetron]

That's the only feature where everyone's kind of like that. And dictation and stuff is kind of.

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah, they're good. The display glasses, they look unfortunate.

[Ed Zicher]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

But no, I've used them. I used them on the show. They're kind of cool.

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah, they're cool. They're. You know, I tried today. They Just launched the handwriting feature.

[Ed Zetron]

What's that?

[Carissa Bell]

So, you know, they use this neural band that you can control gesture. So if you.

[Ed Zetron]

So the glasses, you put them on and you control it with the wristband just for Chloe's sake.

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah. You kind of do little swipes and that's how you control the interface.

[Ed Zetron]

And it works pretty well.

[Carissa Bell]

And it does. And so up to now, if you get like a WhatsApp message and you want to reply, basically you have to use your voice to dictate a reply. So now what they're going to do is they have this feature called handwriting where you can basically just trace letters with your hand, like on any. On your leg, on a table, just say, cool, just do the letters and then that will appear on screen. And I tried to say it was actually, it worked really well. It did not work with cursive, although I'm the only old person who probably would even try that.

[Ed Zetron]

Well, I mean, that's. I cannot. Dyspraxia. Physical. Physical disability. Where, like, writing is one of the worst things. It's like eventually painful. I kind of want to go and hunt this down just to be like, yeah, let's fucking go, mate. I have a disability. Let's go. But actually, you know, maybe it works. But wait, so it's how you write them. Do you do it by letter? Like.

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah, so you just do it letter by letter. And then when you want to do a space, you do like a left to right. When you want to delete something, you can go right to left.

[Ed Zetron]

I'm oddly, like intrigued by this because there's. When they brought Swipe. I don't know if you remember Swipe. It's like when you just drag the. It's now fairly common, but it, like, that works pretty well.

[Jared Newman]

Oh, yeah, I love that.

[Ed Zetron]

I'm kind of like, all right, Meta. If you want to do one, you.

[Ed Zicher]

Want a whole booth for Swipe at ces.

[Ed Zetron]

No, they did one year Swipe, I think, actually had like a small booth. I swear to God. Yeah, it sounds like something plausible. And I just. Mandela affected it into the world. She's just like YouTube videos popping up.

[Robert Evans]

No, it's.

[Ed Zetron]

I can't believe, like Meta. Fucking Meta is the company that brought something that worked to ces. Oh, God, it's like. It's like a three headed dog being born. Disgusting.

[Ed Zicher]

I mean, I think what you were. What you were saying earlier about basically the trend is the most pragmatic things. Yeah. Are the things that actually will help the world and that consumers actually want and actually need. But they just are the least shiny and they get the least positive feedback and they hit the fewest headlines.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah.

[Ed Zicher]

And if you allow me to tell.

[Ed Zetron]

A brief story, please, please close out this. The.

[Ed Zicher]

This is. Okay, here we go. I think you. I think you're. For the first minute of this, you're gonna go, why are you telling this story? And then I think you will understand. For my wonderful boyfriend's birthday earlier this year, I had a couple grand plans. I have this like very vivid memory of him having, when we first started dating a couple years ago, having this like plug by his bed that had multi cords coming out of it, like a little octopus set up kind of thing. And he would move it from next to his bed to his office and then from his office to wherever we were going. And I. Two years ago, I was like, it would be awesome to get him a second one of those so that he didn't have to move it around. And then he also thinks that the M and M store in Times Square is very funny. And so I was like, I also will get him some M and M's store branded merchandise.

[Ed Zetron]

Okay.

[Ed Zicher]

And then I think I had a third idea, right. That I don't remember now. And then it was the day before. My boyfriend lives in London. It was the day before I was. It was the day. I think it was the day that I was flying to London, right. Had not purchased any of this. Went to the Times Square store in London, the Eminem. I'm sorry, the Eminem store in Times Square. Couldn't find anything that he would want. Got him a pair of boxer shorts that I knew he wouldn't like. It's not the type that he wears. But I was like, I. At this point, I really have backed myself into a corner. Landed in London. Went immediately to multiple department stores looking for this type of cable, whatever. None of them had the setup that I wanted. I wound up buying. What's the fancy? It's like Macy's. No, it's like a step down from that. It's a two word, two name. John Waters.

[Ed Zetron]

John Lewis.

[Ed Zicher]

John Lewis.

[Ed Zetron]

John Waters?

[Ed Zicher]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

I wish.

[Ed Zicher]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

So he went to John Waters.

[Ed Zicher]

Went to John Waters. Went to John Lewis. Bought him a plug and two cables that all were sold separately. Couldn't figure out what the third, like, couldn't find the third thing. Whatever. I wound up for his birthday, and just for context, the year before, he had turned 40 and I had gotten him a vintage Tottenham Hotspur, which is the soccer team that he supports, warm up jacket. From the year that he became a fan. 1993. Like went hunted on ebay. Found the exact. It was this incredible gift. And this year I brought him Eminem's boxers and a plug and two cords. And he was like, you are the idiot husband and I am the long suffering wife. And fair point. But the entire point of this story is out of all of the presents I have gotten him over the last two years, you want to know what he fucking uses every fucking day? The plug, cable and the cables. And I'm like, see, it wasn't a bad present.

[Ed Zetron]

And you are still the fucking husband. You're still the husband. You're still the husband who got the gift that you're like, look, it's good, it's good. You use it.

[Advertisement Voice]

You like it.

[Ed Zicher]

And it was expensive.

[Ed Zetron]

Stop muttering under your breath when I mention Christmas. All right, we're going to rotate to our next guest. The next advertisement is brought to you by Blort, the sun cream for dogs.

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[Ed Zetron]

Did it move?

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[Robert Evans]

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[Ed Zetron]

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[Ed Zicher]

You lather, rinse, moisturize, repeat and repeat.

[Carissa Bell]

But it never feels like enough.

[Ed Zicher]

It's not your products, it's your water. Hard water leaves a mineral residue that.

[Carissa Bell]

Clogs pores and dries out hair.

[Ed Zicher]

Culligan water softeners remove damaging minerals, revitalizing.

[Carissa Bell]

Brittle hair and dry skin.

[Ed Zetron]

Upgrade your shower and skincare routine with Culligan water. You love. Welcome back to the show. I'm Ed Zicher and I'm joined by Carissa Bella Van Gadget.

[Carissa Bell]

Hello.

[Ed Zicher]

Hello.

[Ed Zetron]

Jared Newman of the Advisorator Newsletter.

[Ed Zicher]

Hey.

[Ed Zetron]

And Robert Evans of Behind the Bastards.

[Robert Evans]

I am loving the drive time radio.

[Ed Zetron]

DJ version of I'm really enjoying.

[Robert Evans]

I'm loving doing this all day.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, I really.

[Robert Evans]

I'm gonna be everyone old yet?

[Ed Zetron]

Not for me.

[Jared Newman]

Have you taken reader questions?

[Ed Zetron]

I would love them if you want to easier. Betteroffline.com I'll answer all your questions live. No, I've been Daniel Goodman, my. My producer. Sorry, my producer is Matasowski. But Daniel, producers went in person. It's not a it and behead as well. Nevertheless, we've been working on it but I think the idea of like a drive time show with me is a really. You don't need to. You don't want to have that unholy force come out of the world. But Robert, you've. You've got a stack of paper in your crusade against trees.

[Robert Evans]

I do, I do. I hate trees. I love printed advertisements for products that are going to destroy the company releasing them. Yes. And I've been collecting quite a few. These are just the ones that I managed to grab out of my bag quickly.

[Ed Zetron]

Nice. But talk to me about some of the Things you've seen today?

[Robert Evans]

Well, I mean, easily the most impressive product that's at the show today. And there's a wide variety of stuff. There's like, apparently some sort of like magnetically fired net gun for taking out drones. Oh, okay. You know, there's all sorts of incredible, like, different, like in smart vehicle products, like different kind of electric engines and like all sorts of crazy new battery and solar technology. But it's the AI that's really set off the convention this year. Everyone's talking about AI and there's no AI product that people are talking about more than AI Moon, the world's first zodiac AI fairy.

[Ed Zetron]

Oh my God.

[Robert Evans]

I mean, obviously, please, like, look at the. I mean, I, I would describe them as like if a furry. It's not a nice joke. If a furry had fetal alcohol syndrome. Right. Like that's, that's kind of like how these look to me. I don't mean that, like negative. It's just a description. Yeah. And these are to replace your astrologer. You know, they're trying to get rid of astrologer.

[Ed Zetron]

They're coming after our scam artists.

[Robert Evans]

They're coming after the scam artists today.

[Ed Zetron]

The newspapers are gonna shut down. They already talk classifieds away.

[Robert Evans]

And for one thing, I cannot tell how much is AI generated of the pictures of people in this brochure. Everything looks a little wrong to me. Can I. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They brag that they have a proposal proprietary astrology engine with a birth horoscope and a composite chart analysis, a long term memory system so it gets to know you better with every chat. And a personalized personality that's customizable based on user data. They're good as friends, as emotional comfort. They brag that it can help you cure certain problems that you might have. So I'm gonna say the other ad thing I've got.

[Ed Zetron]

Yes, I'm gonna say Jesus Christ. First of all, I don't think the audience could possibly know how low resolution these images are. Yeah, it's a badly made picture and you've got some. Yeah, here's the thing, because there's like astrology where it's like based on like when you were born and what times. And like, there's also like thoughts. This is not that. This is like various photos that I. Okay. This is like. Did they Photoshop this thing in?

[Robert Evans]

That's what they don't quite look right. And I can't tell if that's just because they used AI photos or if there's just like a deep well, of madness at the same time.

[Jared Newman]

So are these physical objects?

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, yeah, they're little furby sized objects that give. You are like horoscope chatbots that are supposed to like learn and evolve the more they work with you. And they're also supposed to counsel you and be like quasi therapists. So they had like four different archetypes of these robots that they were advising. One is the relationship advisor. Filter out the toxic. Toxic. Making the ones you love. Making the sorry. Making the ones you love. Cherish you even more. Which is a weird sentence first off, like, okay, sure. And this one is sharp tongued, emotionally rich, sharp intuition, strong empathy and sensible. And obviously it's a Scorpio. And then the Capricorn one is your career lucky charm. It cures overthinking which might be a violation of FDA rules, advertising cures in action masters hustling and career building.

[Ed Zetron]

I want to know how it cures inaction just by. It's so horrifying. You make it.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, I need to get up and leave my house to get away from the doll. Yeah. And then there's the joyful protector tap watch to ditch the mental overload. Stay upbeat and carefree. 247 and I really wanted to try these out, but they did not seem to be functioning. At least the demo I got, I couldn't really hear it and it just like wasn't connecting. I guess like that's been an issue because I've tried a bunch of different. We slapped, we gave access to Gemini or to fucking chatgpt, to a ring or to a pencil or something like that. And most of the ones when I'd ask like, can I try it? They're like, well, the signal's not really working right now like because that's been.

[Ed Zetron]

A lot though, because the WI fi doesn't work and all the these things are off device.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, well, and that's one of the products that I did really like was from. I initially just discovered the company because I saw their name and I was like, that can't be an American company because they would not have picked this name. And it's for. They do translation based AI products and the company's name is Trans AI.

[Ed Zetron]

Oh, I saw that.

[Robert Evans]

So I just looked. I just kind of like that got me looking. But then their products were actually really neat. They had a device that's like a transcription tool. It's about the size of a smartphone. It's got a screen, it looks nice. It's got a swiveling camera that has like a Little engine on it. And so you can just set it down when you're doing an interview and it'll transcribe that. But it also, it acts as a translator. It's got like 150 languages. Like you can have Translate convict, which a bunch of products do. It actually sounds a ton of people.

[Jared Newman]

And this was on. I remember them saying this was all.

[Robert Evans]

On device and it's on device. That's what I really liked because a lot of people are offering. This is a translator but it's in the cloud or it's.

[Ed Zicher]

It's.

[Robert Evans]

You're literally like ChatGPT's on it too. And like. So you want me to have like interviews that might be sensitive and then throw that shit back to ChatGPT or elsewhere on the. No, I want it on device.

[Ed Zetron]

And especially with these cheap companies, you know, they're not paying the extra to keep it. So it's not being used as training data.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah. And that will be. Trans AI is going to have this out. If you just Google Trans AI Kickstarter. They've got a Kickstarter going to fund this device which I didn't get to test it fully. I did get to like hold and look at it. It seemed at least physically well made. Like it's a good industrial design. I can't. Well, I did. I mean there's only so much you can try standing around. They did give me though a set of wireless earbuds that are automatic translators that are supposed to. So I am going to get to try that out like that. So we'll see how well it works.

[Ed Zetron]

Were the earbuds on the device as well?

[Robert Evans]

No, no, no, no. Those are because they're just little earbuds. Right. That's cool. It may just be though that it downloads enough onto your phone. I'm not. I haven't got gotten to try that yet.

[Ed Zetron]

But I feel like in a few years anything that's left of the air bubble will all be on device. Just because nobody trusts this shit.

[Robert Evans]

Right.

[Advertisement Voice]

Well.

[Robert Evans]

And just. Yeah.

[Jared Newman]

And nobody wants to pay for it.

[Robert Evans]

No, wants to pay for it. And for stuff that's really crucial like being able. Like if you're trying to sell like you can have conversations when you're traveling around the world maybe in like weird off grid locations. I don't want to have to have like 5G. I don't have to connect.

[Ed Zetron]

We were just saying that earlier. It's like if you're in somewhere where you desperately need the translation, there's no English speakers around. It's probably also not a wi fi rich environment.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

And you have more experience of this, I think, than anyone.

[Robert Evans]

Well, and you'd always prefer to have.

[Ed Zetron]

A person, but that's not always super feasible. Always. So what else you got in your pile of papers?

[Robert Evans]

Okay, let's see. What else do I have in my. Well, I've got this book that I can't wait to read. Patterns for Building AI Agents by Sam Bhagwat, who is the co founder and.

[Jared Newman]

That'S a great name.

[Robert Evans]

I think it's, it's just a normal name.

[Ed Zetron]

Sam Bog War, co founder and CEO.

[Robert Evans]

Of something called Master AI. I don't know what it is, but 11 of these were sitting out at a bus stop on the way to the convention center, so I just went ahead and grabbed one.

[Ed Zetron]

It's like when you're walking around Brooklyn, you find a Scientology thing.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, yeah. It might be a cult. I, I, I have not confirmed it's not a cult.

[Ed Zetron]

Okay. So. Okay, this the patterns for building it, Sam Wat Guan. Yeah, I, I don't know. I'll, I'll look at this later and I'll tear it.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, this is.

[Ed Zetron]

Oh, actually, I can't read. This is the sequel to Principles of Building AI Agents, so.

[Robert Evans]

Oh, okay. You got to read the first one.

[Ed Zetron]

You can't watch the Empire Strikes Back first.

[Robert Evans]

So I found the name. This is the device I was talking about. The AI the on the world's first on device AI meeting note taker. The Trans AI note. You can like see. It's like a nice looking gadget.

[Jared Newman]

By the way, there was another device called Trans AI or trans. It's something with trans and AI in the name. And it was voice cloning. It was a translator that. A translator that tried to make your voice sound like it was in the other language.

[Robert Evans]

Oh, that's kind of cool.

[Jared Newman]

Yeah, it was a little unsettling.

[Robert Evans]

That's, that's really good for fraud. Like, that really is going to hyper.

[Jared Newman]

It's great for fraud.

[Robert Evans]

I've been really wanting to take advantage of a lot of French people at scale and it's just hard to do right now.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, I'm just reading this agent book example Coding agents replit agent feeds errors back into context and kicks off an automation feedback loop based on everything I've ever read about that company. That is wrong.

[Robert Evans]

Just like it may be just the. I haven't looked into fraud masters. There was. Oh, there was the Sybo Pal, which is, it was one of those products where like, I can see the cool in this, but it doesn't work very well. Where it's supposed to be a sight tracking intelligent monitor that moves on its own with your head, I can see the value as you, like, like, move. Now, obviously you don't want it to just physically move whenever you move your head, because that would be a nightmare. That would, like, literally be hell. Like, if this gadget's just constant as you're like, I gotta, like, move over, take a hit of a vape pen or something. But so they had to figure out, like, how can you. What is like an easy, seamless, unobtrusive way for you to tell this thing to move? And they settled on a complex series of different hand gestures that you have to use. What? Like, you have to go aim at one of two different sensors. And first the lady who was like the PR representative that was supposed to show it off tried to. And about one out of every four times it did what she asked it to. And then the guy who I think was one of the inventors, who's definitely her boss, there's a language barrier, so it was a little hard to tell their exact roles in the company, sat down and he did a lot better. It responded to what he asked it about 70% of the time. But it's still a lot. Six Panthers, both of them, a lot of the time are just like, like doing this, like, repeating the same, like, two finger gesture, whatever, over and over at a camera to get it to move. And when it. Cause periodically, for like, 40 seconds, it would do like five or six gestures in a row, it would move. And I was like, oh, that's kind of neat.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, if it worked, it would be great. CES 2026.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And it's just one of these. It's another, like, AI product where, for one thing, that's not AI. I'm sorry, guys. Like, we're using that for every. It's the same thing.

[Ed Zetron]

Like, they have that company that Apple bought, like, in 2011 that was like, they had a ca. It was like a bar. It was like a wee bar. You're attached to your monitor and you could, like, do gestures. And that barely fucking worked. Hell, yeah. Nothing has changed.

[Jared Newman]

Lenovo actually had a tilting swiveling screen laptop, and that follows your head when you're on.

[Ed Zetron]

Did it work?

[Jared Newman]

Yeah, it worked.

[Ed Zetron]

These people are fucked then. Sorry, you were gonna say something.

[Carissa Bell]

I was gonna say we had that. Didn't Xbox have that technology, like, 10 years ago?

[Ed Zetron]

Well, Kinect, but it couldn't see black people that was like. It's like. It's like a better off TED joke.

[Robert Evans]

It keeps happening, too. That' not the first, nor will it be the last time.

[Ed Zetron]

The law doesn't seem to do that either.

[Robert Evans]

Well, sometimes, yeah.

[Ed Zicher]

But.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, I mean, and that. That the whole frustration of, like, things labeled. Because there's. There's a mix of like, shit labeled as AI that under no circumstances anyone real reasonable consider, like, a robot that responds to a gesture by moving a screen. And that's all it does. It's not an intelligence.

[Ed Zetron]

And also just. Do you have fucking hands? And have you met people with other hands?

[Robert Evans]

Like, and we've been doing that for forever. Like, machines that you can, like, do something into a camera and it recognizes a simple command.

[Ed Zetron]

It's computer vision. It's just basic. Like, you get that on device now.

[Robert Evans]

And likewise, like, I keep seeing, like, I like this AI, this meeting note taker. I don't. Is it AI? I guess it's more AI to recognize and, like, transcribe a conversation. But the appeal is not that it's a thing that you can communicate with. The appeal is that it can do a task. Right. There's a bunch of different AI pins and AI glasses. And the ones I hated all had chat integration into it to where you can communicate with it. And the ones that were cool were like, yeah, it's a pin that can listen to a conversation and transcribe it for you. Right, right. And I was like, well, yeah, that might be useful. You know, it's just like, it all.

[Ed Zetron]

Gets back to the classic thing of like, yeah, I want this to do a task. And they're like, oh, no, no, sorry, AI doesn't do that. Yeah, like, it's not able to do that. And I feel like this is just the logical endpoint of where this CES has been going for 10 years, which is slowly distancing itself from reality and promise to just this point, when 97% of the stuff is just like, if it works, wouldn't it be kind of useful? Sort of.

[Jared Newman]

Well, it's like I was talking about, like, AI slop products earlier, you know, and it's the kind of thing where, like, okay, you can talk to your router and the router will tell you what's wrong, whatever. But it's like, you could just design a UI that just, like, told you that. That just gave you that information in a visually appealing way, or a router that works. People don't look. As a print journalist, like, people don't want to read a Block of text. Unfortunately, they just want visual. And yet we're reverting into this thing where, like, the technology communicates with you via a block of text that was generated by AI.

[Ed Zetron]

I also love that with routers as well, because I think for, like, every CES I've ever been to, there was a router company that said, yeah, it'll just fix your network problems.

[Robert Evans]

It.

[Ed Zetron]

Everyone's lying. Every single one of them's lying. It's wrong every time. It's never worked. TP link deco. Fuck you, TP link. I'm sorry, that shit don't work. It's busted. And fuck that. Hundreds of dollars wasted.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah. And it's the most I've. The most product category type I have seen at CES is some form of digital assistant and. Or new chatbot or, like, companion. Right.

[Ed Zetron]

Right.

[Robert Evans]

Like, I. There's a huge booth for a company called Tuya T U Y A that was like, they've got this. Who. It does everything. Digital companion. You can, like, there's a health version of it. So you can, like, feed this thing your health data. Like, you can give it access to your wearables. And it'll not just, like, tell you what's my heart rate at, how much, you know, many calories did I burn? But it'll tell you, like, it'll like, make workout plans for you and, like, recommend diets and stuff for you, which, like, I guess I'm sure there are people who want that. I have the concern I always have with some, like, with, like, okay, so you're feeding all of your biometric data into this machine that you're feeding all of your communications to. It has access to your email, it has access to your notes. It's. You've got a wearable device and it's listening to you. There's a mobile version running through your house. How secure are you? How.

[Ed Zicher]

How.

[Robert Evans]

How much do you trust this company's data safety policy, data retention, how considering.

[Ed Zetron]

Big companies have breaches all the time. I will also add, if you get the wrong workout plan, you can actually really hurt yourself. And I say this as someone who's done it to myself. It's just like, that feels. I feel people are very cavalier about that as well. Where it's just like, oh, yeah, I'll just take the workout from the air and you fuck your leg up, you fuck your arms up. All the things I've done.

[Robert Evans]

Yep. And there's a. So they. They have an AI pet robot for Tuya that can live in your house. It's got. It looks like a big white donut with wheels. And I think the hole in the middle is meant at least based on the crudely photo or the crudely photoshopped cat. Cat sitting in it. To be like your pet can sit inside the AI robot companion. See, it's part of the family.

[Ed Zetron]

I've always a pet for my pet.

[Carissa Bell]

Is it kidnapping your cat and it's.

[Robert Evans]

Telling that you get a real cat in that thing. They had to photoshop a cat crudely into that thing because no cat is getting inside a wheeled robot.

[Ed Zetron]

Baba was killing that shit. Baba was fucking running across the house to like, yeah, donkey kick that shit.

[Robert Evans]

And they describe again, it just looks like a donut with wheels. Galactic design, harmonious coexistence. Sleek sci fi aesthetics for pets and people. Yeah, it's.

[Ed Zetron]

Jesus Christ. It's just.

[Jared Newman]

When am I gonna meet somebody who buys one of these?

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, I want to meet someone. I actually want to study the brain of someone who ghost nights like.

[Robert Evans]

Yes, yes. Finally. It was a big booth. So clearly there's money. $100,000 I think this is. Yeah, I'm not sure where the company's based out of. I haven't looked into it enough yet. There was a panel going on Tuya and Google Cloud from AI first to AI everywhere which was the same as half of the other panels. I've heard it was just a bunch of platinum.

[Ed Zetron]

I want to tie someone to which.

[Robert Evans]

Like how the AI is AI is just getting better. It's coming to everything. Don't you love your digital assistant? I don't go anywhere without my digital assistant.

[Ed Zetron]

What was it you said the last year? This is the worst it will ever be. It actually seems to have got worse.

[Robert Evans]

It's at least not any better. And yeah, they've got the health management thing, it's got a fitness coach, it does sleep analysis. And again, I just keep thinking like, okay, so you're just handing literally your entire life's data. And this is the donuts. They do the donut thing and they have the companion app that can also. One of the things they bragged about is that if you just. Oh, it can run your smart home. So you can plug your security system into this. In addition to your biometric data, It's a security guardian 24. 7 Protection for Peace of mind. And it can run your smart power system, it can run your smart home. And it's also just a companion. And one of the things they advertise this companion can do is if you just tell it A topic, it'll automatically generate a podcast for you. Aren't we all. You know we're in danger now, Ed.

[Ed Zetron]

It takes a little more skill than that.

[Robert Evans]

No, no. Chat with hey to ya. By the way, it's hey to ya sounds a lot too much like hoc to.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, I'm also just thinking, like, everything's like sleep analysis. So as a ChatGPT wrapper, you feed the sleep data and do health analysis.

[Jared Newman]

It's just.

[Advertisement Voice]

Just.

[Ed Zetron]

They released ChatGPT for Health Today.

[Robert Evans]

AI podcast.

[Ed Zetron]

Alex Heath said.

[Robert Evans]

Listen to what you love.

[Ed Zetron]

Alex Heath of sources says that Chat GPT health is going to be big. I think that that's irresponsible and also bullshit. A massive numpty would use Chat GPT health. It's like, what's it gonna fuck? And it also, it's great. It's like, use it for this, this. But it's not for health advice.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, so why the no. Because we can't advertise that right now. Jesus. The liability.

[Ed Zetron]

But also, what the fuck is it for then?

[Robert Evans]

It's for giving you health advice.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, it's like. It's for health.

[Robert Evans]

Here's the other thing, though, like health tourism.

[Jared Newman]

If we buy, and this is an if, but like, if we buy the idea that generative AI agents like ChatGPT and Gemini, whatever are like the operating systems of the future, which I of course do. Yeah, I know you believe that. But like, you now, you have all these other products like that, which is like its own AI kind of agent, and there's like a million of them on the show floor. So are you gonna have that and then another device that has its own AI thing and another device has its own AI thing and you really would rather just use ChatGPT or whatever.

[Ed Zetron]

That's the thing. It's like, what happens to all these companies when OpenAI copies all of them or dies? What if OpenAI raises their prices? Do the margins make sense?

[Robert Evans]

And these products are literally just a thing that, like, computer that we slapped into a ring or something and gave it wireless, like, gave it, like, access to ChatGPT. Right. That's all it is. What if you can't afford that anymore?

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, what if they raise the prices by 10%? Because that doesn't sound like much if you're like paying 20 bucks a month, but if you're doing, I don't know, thousands of dollars, tens, hundreds of company, you wipe them out immediately. If your margins are 10% and like, most of your business is spent on Chat GPT, it's just. It's inevitable, but also so easily clonable.

[Jared Newman]

I am, I'm looking forward to the chat. GPT. Furry astrologer.

[Robert Evans]

Sure. No, that, that, that's a responsible use. That's ethical AI. And that, that really seems like ethical AI to me.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, very boring.

[Robert Evans]

There was a good one on mental health and AI that was by a panel. Yeah, I mean, it wasn't so much a panel as. As like a speech by like a clinical therapist.

[Ed Zetron]

Okay.

[Advertisement Voice]

Who.

[Robert Evans]

I've got this written down in my notes. I'm spacing her name right now. But she was taking very much the reasonable tact of like, okay, what has already happened is that a shitload of people are using chatbots as therapists. That is happening. That is a thing that is going on. There are harms. We are starting to document and we'll continue to document with that. That. But it's a thing that's happening. What would a healthy. And the other thing she was saying that I don't fully agree with, but I think it's an arguable point, is because lack of access to mental health resources is such an endemic problem in the United States and the world, there is an opportunity, if you can make ethically a clinical, an AI therapist or something that can do counseling or whatnot, not to reach people who couldn't otherwise. Now, I don't agree with that, but it's for the purpose of listening to the speech. I can follow with like, okay, how would you. I want to hear your pitch on like, what an ethical version of this would be. And what I appreciated is that she doesn't really. Didn't really come to a conclusion. Like, she was like, these are the things you would need to do. I don't know if it can be done. That was kind of the thrilling is like, I'm not sure that this is actually. Here's what it would need to be if it was. If you were going to try to do this, here's what you couldn't have it doing. Here's the things you'd have to keep in mind. And like, one of the things she brought up, which I think is why this is a fundamentally impossible thing, is she said, okay, one of the major problems with chatbots, especially because people are using them as therapists, is that they are designed to keep you on and to keep you using. Right. And they like, will. Will gas you up. They'll. They'll lie to, they'll say whatever to keep you using them. And that. That's bad for like therapy. Right, yeah, you need pushback. Right? You need pushback. You need critical analysis of what you're doing. Sometimes you don't need a machine that is trying to keep you happy so that you continue to use it. That's not therapy. And she was like, so any responsible version of this technology turned towards therapy would have to not do that. And so I came up to her afterwards and I was like, well, the problem to me then is people will always have access to the robots that are really dangerous and terrible therapists that make them feel good and want to talk to them. Why would anyone use and pay money for a presumably more expensive therapeutic bot that doesn't make them feel good? And she was like, well, yeah, I think that's probably like an insurmountable problem. Basically, like, that was the. That wasn't her word, but her words were essentially like, yeah, I have the same concern that I'm not sure sure it's possible to do this.

[Ed Zetron]

So what frustrates me. And she's right, sure. But what frustrates me about that is like, I'm tired of people saying, if it did this, it would be great. If it's just not possible. If it's just like most of CES this year is like, if it worked, it would be good.

[Robert Evans]

Hers was more people are using chatbots for therapy. Is it? What would you need to see for this to not be irresponsible?

[Ed Zetron]

I think that's reasonable. I just, I think it's just people. What? She's right. It's a good thing. But it's like, it's not a good.

[Robert Evans]

You can't do it properly.

[Ed Zicher]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

And it's also, people will conflate that by saying, and if we just buy more GPUs, then therapy bot will exist. And it's also just people misunderstand what therapy is. It's good that someone said what would be required, but the moment you think about what would be required, you realize it is impossible.

[Robert Evans]

Well, it's the same. Last year we talked to a guy who made an AI enabled device that was like, like for, as a companion for old people primarily. It's like this like head shaped kind of robot, but didn't have like a face that had cameras on it and could like move a little bit and engage with you that you would like keep in a kitchen or something, like an appliance. And you could use basic stuff with it. It'll tell you like the weather outside, it can look up stuff for you and it'll basically like Alexa. But it Also, it's programmed to engage you and ask you to like, hey, do you want to record a story for your grandkids? Like, you can build an archive. Hey, you have these friends who also have this device. Why don't I call one of them that seems to me I just heard that to try and keep them active, to try to keep them engaged with their family, to make sure. And talking to the inventor of it, he was incredibly concerned both about privacy, but also about this is a medical device. And this is a device that would give people better access to their doctors, better access to their families, give their families a better idea of what's going on with them. And so I don't think it's going to work as a product. I'm sure the company's already failed to be entirely honest, because I don't think anyone's going to buy this thing. But I appreciate, like, okay, you had a good impulse coming in here. This is not a cash grab for you. You were attempting to make something that.

[Ed Zetron]

Would solve a problem and be a good business as a result of that.

[Robert Evans]

Right. And this year I came across a company that. This is the company I showed you the hara zero with that had the.

[Carissa Bell]

The Wall E robot.

[Robert Evans]

They have the Wall E robot that they say they're working with Disney to do a licensed version of, but they have these tiny robots that look like rock em sock em robots that are like companions for the elderly, even though they look like a toy. A kid would have played with this.

[Ed Zetron]

AI me or something like that.

[Robert Evans]

No, no, that's a zero with as a company. But it can like walk around, it can hobble around. And the thing when I asked, like, what does it do? She said, well, it'll tell your. It'll tell like an. An. An elderly person's family member if they're not doing well, if they like, seem to be less social or like stressed or anxious. And I was like, well, based on what he said, well, if you look, you can see like we've got this pro. You can see like how the machine sees through the cameras and it looks like the Terminator and it'll zero in on faces and it'll notice like micro expressions that show you that somebody's like, hiding. And I'm like, you're number 1 1. You don't know any of this.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, you're making this up.

[Robert Evans]

Telling me that your elder care device looks at people the way the Terminator does doesn't give me a lot of confidence. And just the difference in this man who this was a very personal invention to him. And he, at every step was thinking about what will actually be best to the people I want to help versus this marketer being like, yeah, it's like a fucking Terminator. It'll tell you if your grandma's dying. Fucking rude.

[Ed Zetron]

What are you meant to do with that?

[Robert Evans]

And it's tiny. It's like 18 inches tall. Grandma's gonna have this walking around, she's gonna trip on it.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, like, what the fuck? Like the classic thing that old people do is trip on stuff. And it's like, we need another one.

[Robert Evans]

What grandma needs is a tiny robot that looks like a toy that her 40 year old grandson now would have played with as a kid. And like, why. Why does she want this in her house?

[Ed Zetron]

You get it between like Temu notifications and Instagram notifications. Grand grandma dead.

[Robert Evans]

Grandma dead. Grandma details later.

[Ed Zetron]

Grandma dead. Or like the what? Like your cat's pissed? Like, you get the note. Yeah, it really is notification. If you bought even seven of these devices, your entire life is just a nightmare of just like being.

[Robert Evans]

Catching the rest of your life trying to scroll through one day's notifications.

[Ed Zetron]

I mean, my fucking phone is already like that. It's insane. You install a new app that's like, oh, it's the. It's the Selfridges app. And it's like, did you know you can buy pants? And it's like, I'm familiar. Thank you, Selfridges.

[Jared Newman]

But I think it kind of gets back to like, you know what I was saying before about like pebble and clicks. It's like, you know, it is so in short supply at CES to find, like, authenticity. Somebody who is, like, really passionate about, like this thing.

[Ed Zetron]

A thing, a problem.

[Robert Evans]

I want to solve a problem. So I.

[Jared Newman]

When you find it, it's very exciting, you know?

[Robert Evans]

Yeah. Like the guy who made the. The mug that has a fan on it for when you're at, like you're drinking at the stadium or something during like a summer game. And you want both a fan and you want your beer, your Gatorade, whatever you put in there, you know, as seen on tv. Well, it's stupid. I don't want one. It barely counts as consumer electronics, but at least a man had a dream, you know?

[Ed Zetron]

So we're gonna rotate again. And the next ad is. Whatever it is, it's perfect. You. You have to buy it immediately.

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[Ed Zetron]

Did it move?

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Did it cross with tcl? The replay looks obvious. The picture is so real it feels like you're on the 50 at Levi's Stadium. You'll catch the ball, spin on a deep shot, the toe drag on the sideline. No blur, no squinting, no run it back and go big. With sizes up to the massive 98 inch class, every seat is a great seat. Even the one by the snack table. On sale now at all major retailers. Get it while supplies last. TCL is the official TV partner of the NFL and Super Bowl 60.

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[Robert Evans]

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[Ed Zetron]

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[Ed Zicher]

You lather, rinse, moisturize, repeat and repeat.

[Carissa Bell]

But it never feels like enough.

[Ed Zicher]

It's not your products, it's your water. Hard water leaves a mineral residue that.

[Carissa Bell]

Clogs, pores and dries out hair.

[Ed Zicher]

Culligan water softeners remove Damaging minerals, revitalizing.

[Carissa Bell]

Brittle hair and dry skin.

[Ed Zetron]

Upgrade your shower and skincare routine with Culligan water. You love. Diane. I'm once again in front of a microphone in the Palazzo in Las Vegas, Nevada. I'm drinking my 11th Diet Coke. I'm surrounded by the warmth and love of friendship and camaraderie. Joining me is Chloe Radcliffe, the wonderful stand up comedian and actress from. Is this thing on?

[Advertisement Voice]

Who?

[Ed Zicher]

What?

[Robert Evans]

Where?

[Ed Zetron]

It's you, Robert Evans of Behind the Bastards.

[Robert Evans]

Yes.

[Ed Zicher]

Correct.

[Ed Zetron]

I'm going. I'm just stand up comedian Adam Conover and also the host of the factually podcast.

[Robert Evans]

Hello.

[Ed Zetron]

And of course, Edward Nguesso Jr. Who writes the Tech Bubble newsletter.

[Ed Zicher]

Hello.

[Ed Zetron]

And we're back. We're back for the final bit of this, of the Wednesday's CES episode.

[Advertisement Voice]

I am on.

[Ed Zetron]

This is what, 12 and a half hours? It's great. I've got so many more. I fucking love doing. I'm not even complaining. I love doing this. But everyone else appears, everyone else is tired and I'm so sorry, everyone, for dragging you into this. But. Yeah. So we've got two people who've never been to CES before. Oh, Chloe, Adam.

[Jared Newman]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

How'd you feel? What do you think?

[Robert Evans]

Welcome to the jungle.

[Adam Conover]

I mean, it makes me wanna, like, go see someone play an acoustic guitar with no amplification.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah.

[Jared Newman]

You know what I mean?

[Adam Conover]

It makes me want to, like, walk by a playground. Like, you know, it's recess and the children are just sort of like running around.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Ed Zicher]

It makes me want to build a fire and dig a hole with my bare hands. Yeah. Ye.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah, yeah. It makes you want to, like, have a basic, a basic pleasure of life. And I'm having trouble like, you know, putting the two worlds together, you know?

[Ed Zetron]

How do you mean? Like, what are the two worlds in this?

[Adam Conover]

Well, it's just, you know, like this is, it's the center of, you know, the tech industry in many ways, or at least a certain piece of it. Right. It's like all sort of coalescing around this, you know, moment. It's like a little black hole and.

[Robert Evans]

Like bowels of the tech industry. Yeah, we're in the bowels of not ready to, like, shift all this stuff out yet. So we're kind of watching it as it.

[Adam Conover]

And, and it's like supposedly, it's supposedly the most, the most important, you know, industry in America that sets the tone.

[Ed Zetron]

For the year as well, because it's.

[Adam Conover]

In January, drives the economy. These are the people who are, like, creating the future and, and so much of it could not be more distant from most people's lives or horrifying to their lives.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah. Did you see anything new today that horrified you? Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

There were three different kiosks that were selling body trackers that would track you while you're driving a car. Sorry, it's not for you, the driver, though. It's for your employer to track you while you're driving the car. Like. Like if, you know, to track UPS drivers or Uber drivers or other people who are driving a fleet. And it can. You sit there and. And it has, you know, it draws a little skeleton over your body and your face to track you. And then it has a little icon. Oh, we can tell you're yawning. A little voice will say, put on your seatbelt. Like, it's. It's human monitoring to, you know, mechanize people. I guess if you're a logistics company that can't afford Waymos, which are also all over the place, this is a way of sort of putting your drivers into a little virtual prison.

[Ed Zicher]

And that feels so much more invasive than, you know, hey, we do have an alarm on the car door. So we know every time you get in and out of the vehicle. And we have GPS in the car. And we know, you know, we know when you're stopped.

[Advertisement Voice]

Yeah.

[Robert Evans]

Or we have, like, a governor. So it can't go above a certain. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Conover]

And, you know, it was kind of fun to play with because they have a camera set up, and you'll watch it track your body. And me and Edward were playing with it, and then. And I was, like, waving at it. And then I kind of pretended I was in a car crash. And then I kind of like, like, yanked the equipment around, and it wasn't put. And then a German man came over, and he was like, you. You must leave. That has been enough fun. You must. I was like, I'm sorry. Yes, you must leave.

[Ed Zetron]

Very insistent. Yeah.

[Jared Newman]

Each time you said I'm. Each time Adam said, I'm sorry, he's.

[Ed Zetron]

Like, oh, yes, yes, you have to go.

[Adam Conover]

By the way, I was. I was, like, pretty stoned for the entire two hours that we were there.

[Robert Evans]

I love getting in trouble at booths. Like my second or third ces, I used to have this thing where I would seek out all of the rugged products. Cause this was right when they were starting to make a bunch of Bluetooth speakers 15 years ago, starting to make a bunch of power banks and stuff. So rugged electronics was coming into its own as a field. And so I would always. I would track down where they had. And there was one year where one of the companies selling them had a bunch of these big, boxy, rugged speakers and like, like logs that, like, you could sit on or that they were stacking them on. They just brought the logs as decorations, but they were like stump sized logs. And I asked them like, hey, so it's like drop resistant, crush proof. And they were like walking me through the stats and I was like, can I try just dropping one of these logs on top of it? And they were like, yeah. And so I fucking hit it as hard as I could and I cracked the son of a bitch in half owned.

[Ed Zetron]

And a German man said, you must leave. You must put the lockdown.

[Robert Evans]

She apologized to me because she said, I asked. I didn't do. I didn't assault the device.

[Ed Zicher]

Well, you assaulted the device, but with express consent.

[Robert Evans]

With consent.

[Ed Zetron]

But this was also a device you were meant to assault.

[Robert Evans]

Yes, well, that. And that's what. My very first ces, they had an indestructible cell phone. Not a smartphone, a cell phone. And they took a bunch of journalists out to. I think we were in front of Caesars, maybe it was the Venetian, but they had, like, a car that had, like, company branding on it. And they would. Each journalist could go and set the phone down and they would drive over it with, like, an suv, right, to show you how tough it is. And everyone did the exact same thing and took a video while it was driving over it. And I did the same thing as everyone else. I put the phone down flat. They drove over it. I was like, yep, that's a tough phone. And one guy stacked it on its side and they drove over and it popped it right open because it hit a seam. And that is one of the most influential, like, moments in my career as a journalist where it's like, that's. That's how you do journalists. I feel like this is.

[Ed Zetron]

This is the CES thing. It's like, we have got one thing this does and most people are not going to ask because this is not for people to use. It's for people to sell.

[Robert Evans]

Right.

[Ed Zetron]

And it's like, oh, yeah, yeah. Well, what if it does this?

[Robert Evans]

Wait, what?

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, does it work? I feel like you were talking about something earlier, Clover. It was just like you asked one question. My brain just seizing up in reality time.

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah.

[Ed Zicher]

I'm trying to remember which specific. I just have so many products. I've been like, no, you've been asked, but what's the point?

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, that's the question. It's like, what's the point? And then like, why?

[Ed Zicher]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

No one's ever asked us. Yeah, yeah, you, you got any dregs left, Chloe? Things to declare.

[Ed Zicher]

I saw this is not a pro. Well, I actually don't know what product this was associated with. It must be a product probably for the best. But there was a like, test how strong your, your punch is.

[Robert Evans]

Oh yeah, they've had sexual.

[Ed Zicher]

And I stood for a couple minutes and just watched with the greatest respect, the dweebiest losers. Sweet little dorks. Some young, many old walk up and just like try and rail this thing and, and like, you know, everybody punched it. But watching, watching dudes in just like weirdly fitting suits whose faces move a little strange be like, it is my turn to punch now. I was like, this is incredible. This is beautiful. And I was like, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna take a video of this. I'm not gonna take it. This is not, I'm not trying to, like, I'm not trying to be mean. I'm not trying to make this a sideshow, but this is cinema.

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

I saw also, like there was one where you could throw footballs at Target. And I was just, I watched this old man just walk up and just fucking lamping the footballs there. And then he just, and his like, wife was like, like videoing him do it. And they just walked off and you could see the people at the booth be like, wait, were you not gonna talk to us about the tv? And they just walked off. That guy fucking rocks. I love that.

[Robert Evans]

That's beautiful.

[Ed Zetron]

I want to throw the fucking football and I don't want to go. I'm done here. I don't need to talk to you. You and your like gooby TV or whatever it was. It was like one of the weird off brand television companies that spends way too much at this show.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

Your first CES and you're now really. I feel like this is an, I don't want to say atypical year, but it's one of the sadder ones. Like, I'm having a great time.

[Robert Evans]

There's not a lot of new ideas.

[Jared Newman]

One thing I, maybe the only thing.

[Ed Zetron]

I liked actually was I saw this.

[Jared Newman]

Massive John Deere tractor.

[Robert Evans]

Didn't know they could be this big.

[Adam Conover]

Massive two story house.

[Jared Newman]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

Literally, I climbed stairs to get up there.

[Robert Evans]

Had crazy hydraulics.

[Ed Zetron]

Like, I, I, I had a vision.

[Jared Newman]

Of, of just not doing any of this.

[Ed Zetron]

And farming with the, with the big.

[Robert Evans]

Ass track really feels right. In my farming. Yeah.

[Jared Newman]

With the industrial farming. You know, I come from a long line of farmers.

[Ed Zetron]

I feel like that, that felt right.

[Jared Newman]

For a second and then I had intrusive thoughts about running over all the tech.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah. And that would be ideal.

[Ed Zetron]

That felt more right.

[Adam Conover]

I felt more right when I climbed up there. I started, you know, because it's. You climb into this thing and you're 30ft above the ground and it's like the bridge of like the starship Enterprise. It's like a hydraulic chair and like a giant thing and you're looking at the, it's the rest of the show floor and you're just like, oh, if I had a missile launcher on this, I could blow it all up. And the front of it looks like weaponry because it's like 20. Like imagine a cone the shape of a traffic cone, but as tall as a person. Person.

[Robert Evans]

Right.

[Adam Conover]

And then on its end, like with the sharp part pointed out, like 20 of those lined up. That's what you're driving though. It is. I believe it's picking corn like off the cobs and putting it into a giant like dump truck looking thing that, that, that goes along in sync with it. Which is another part of the, the gap between the stuff at this show and reality. Because it's like this is so far from what most people think of as a farmer farm. You know, this looks like.

[Ed Zetron]

But isn't that how.

[Robert Evans]

But that's how most farmers. Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

Oh, I know, but it's, it's just the gap between. It looks like if you were playing like a video game and you were like terraforming Mars, like this is what.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Conover]

This thing looks like.

[Ed Zetron]

I, I just like the idea of a giant tractor and just turning the thing on, driving forward until I'm out this convention center.

[Adam Conover]

Drive away.

[Ed Zetron]

Leave this all by me.

[Robert Evans]

Drive. Just head for the, the hills. Yeah, just, just stop till you hit red rock.

[Ed Zetron]

Go out to Area 51, me and the boys.

[Jared Newman]

Yeah, yeah, that's, that's our dear President. That's one of his bits.

[Advertisement Voice]

Right.

[Jared Newman]

You remember when he was, he had that truck and he was like, you.

[Robert Evans]

Know, happy in that truck.

[Jared Newman]

Just drive away. They won't let me, but I could just go off into the sunset.

[Robert Evans]

You let him.

[Ed Zetron]

You could, you could do that with the tractor. You know, if you hot.

[Jared Newman]

Maybe if you hot wire it. I don't know if it actually has an engine.

[Ed Zicher]

Imagine, you could imagine a tractor that, that you are describing is the size of a spaceship. But if you just know exactly where to cut and you can just make red wire, touch blue wire and turn this Tthing on.

[Ed Zetron]

The CES massacre.

[Ed Zicher]

MO over CES.

[Ed Zetron]

The Las Vegas Tractor Massacre.

[Ed Zicher]

Blasting big green tractor out of the speakers.

[Adam Conover]

There were, I do want to say, behind us in line for the tractor, there was like a bunch of folks from Japan. And they were, like, vibrating with excitement to get in the tractor because I can only imagine. Imagine just the American ness of a John Deere tractor and the size of it. It was like they were. They, like, shoved me out of the way to get in.

[Ed Zetron]

I'm. I will also say this is a unique thing that Americans can't understand how small some other countries are. Like, when I got to America and I saw my first cruise ship, I kind of freaked the fuck out. I say, it's just so large.

[Robert Evans]

So much.

[Ed Zetron]

It looks like the size of London.

[Robert Evans]

They're usually upsetting.

[Jared Newman]

I still freak out over them.

[Ed Zetron]

They're massive. They're huge and they've terrifying. They look horrifying. And like, if I got in this big tractor, I would either feel overwhelmed with power or, like, just like, I wouldn't want that to exist. But I also like that they had a big tractor at ces. That makes me.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, I feel like the big tractor is like the ring of power. And that no matter whether or not you, like, hate it before you get behind the wheel, as soon as you start driving it, it changes you.

[Ed Zetron]

You just hear Dragula in your head.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

It was pretty clear.

[Robert Evans]

It was pretty clear.

[Adam Conover]

You don't even drive this thing. You supervise it.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

This would be my green goblin mask.

[Robert Evans]

You've got Mr. Worf behind you on the weapons. Alex Heath is here.

[Ed Zetron]

I'm not. Sorry, Alex. Sorry, Alex.

[Covino and Rich]

I don't mean it.

[Ed Zetron]

I'm not gonna run you over the track. I do love that every now and.

[Jared Newman]

Then you'll name drop someone. You're like, I wish I could do bodily harm. Just kidding.

[Ed Zetron]

I'm also. I would not do bodily harm to Alex Heath. I apologize, Alex.

[Jared Newman]

Parody.

[Robert Evans]

That's not what the poster that you made didn't put on the wall behind me says. I wasn't gonna comment on it. It's weird.

[Ed Zicher]

Robert.

[Ed Zetron]

Just the fucking signal chat from last year is just like an actionable threat against an executive.

[Robert Evans]

I was like.

[Ed Zetron]

And it was the second I got here as well. He was like, sam Altman, we're going to. And I'm not going to fucking repeat it.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah. It's not illegal to make actionable threats against people. It's not. It depends on what. Who you voted for.

[Ed Zetron]

That's my boss, folks. Yeah, it's.

[Advertisement Voice]

I.

[Robert Evans]

These are jokes, These are bits.

[Ed Zetron]

We're doing bits. We're having a laugh. We're having a laugh. It's. It's bants. It's. We're band maxing.

[Robert Evans]

We're bantering.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, yeah, that's. This is how it works. So, Adam, this is your last day though. Did you see anything you liked? So you're on an edible.

[Jared Newman]

Yes.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah, no, no, I know. I was vaping. I have a dry herb vape, which is the best way to consume weed.

[Ed Zetron]

I actually am curious. What does that mean?

[Adam Conover]

Okay, so what it means. I love explaining this. What it means is, you know, Robert, you know what this is?

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, it's just like a vape that. Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

I mean, you put plant material in it. Most vapes that people think of are oil that have like chemically extracted the THC and suspended it in like an oil.

[Robert Evans]

That's how all of the vapes used to work volcanoes and stuff when we were kids. Right.

[Jared Newman]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

The ones with the bag, this is.

[Adam Conover]

You put plant material in it, it heats it to a precise temperature where it does not burn. It just vaporizes the THC and other essential oils. And one of the great things about it is it makes almost no vapor paper. So you. I use this thing at the fucking airport. Like nobody notice, you know, if no one's looking at you, no one is going to notice you're using this thing. So it is great for this kind of environment.

[Ed Zicher]

But it doesn't taste like strawberry melon.

[Robert Evans]

No.

[Ed Zicher]

I guess weed babes maybe never do. Wow. Spoken like a person who really knows her drugs.

[Adam Conover]

I did see something that I really did pop for, which was. And Ed was there to the.

[Robert Evans]

It was a.

[Adam Conover]

Okay, so imagine like a white van, like a normal van. And on top of it are sort of a couple blue tubes that go up and down and rotate. Kind of like if you built like a LEGO version of an anti aircraft that looks like a home anti aircraft weapon. And it turns out that's what it was. Cause it shoots a net at drones.

[Robert Evans]

Sure.

[Adam Conover]

Using not gunpowder. Some kind of electromagnetic.

[Robert Evans]

Like a. Like almost a rail gun type.

[Adam Conover]

I asked the guy, was this a rail gun? And he was like kind of.

[Ed Zicher]

You know what's a railgun?

[Robert Evans]

Uses magnets to propel around.

[Ed Zetron]

Nothing much railgun with you. Sorry, it.

[Adam Conover]

It's like a. It's like a. Yeah, like a sci fi torpedo.

[Ed Zicher]

Can we cut that out of the podcast?

[Adam Conover]

But yeah, so it shoots a. It shoots a Net at the drone and then it catches the drone and then there's a little parachute so the drone, like, falls down to earth.

[Ed Zicher]

That's cool.

[Adam Conover]

So you can.

[Ed Zetron]

It was like super.

[Adam Conover]

Just like Metal Gear Solid five. Yeah.

[Jared Newman]

And it's interesting because it's. He was like. There's a legal gray area where it's like.

[Adam Conover]

You know, you see a drone that.

[Jared Newman]

You don't know and you're like, whose drone is this?

[Ed Zetron]

And you want to shoot it, but you can't.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah.

[Jared Newman]

You know, you might get in trouble.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah. So he says, so you're not destroying it. You can just. You can give it back to the owner after you retrieve it.

[Robert Evans]

I'm mounting that shit on the back of my truck, like a technical. And I'm in the park just driving.

[Ed Zetron]

In your pickup truck with a bunch of drones and the back.

[Ed Zicher]

I mean, what we think Mad Max is going to look like is like old gas trucks. It's actually going to just be semi trucks with drone trophies off to the revolution nailed.

[Adam Conover]

Because the drones are going to have countermeasures eventually where they're going to all they are chaff or they're going to dodge.

[Robert Evans]

You know, they've already. I mean, that's. Yeah, that is the nature of drone. Like, that's what we're seeing in Ukraine right now, which is like. It's. It's this. It's gotten to this insane escalation of countermeasure where if you go to a lot of frontline villages, they're coming covered in miles of fiber optic cable. It looks like the whole village is covered in spider webs. That's the question.

[Advertisement Voice]

Why?

[Robert Evans]

Because you almost have to have all of the drones be wired because jamming is so prevalent. Right. So if you can't jam one that's got like a wire on it. So they're basically taking off with these long spools and flying around and it leaves because they're getting shot down constantly. Drones don't have a long lifespan in the field, so you just wind up with these villages that are. It looks like a giant spider full of cables webbed like a.

[Ed Zicher]

That, like hangs on the trees.

[Ed Zetron]

No idea about it.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, the drone warfare is nuts.

[Ed Zetron]

Fucking hell.

[Robert Evans]

I hate it. That's the thing that came closest to killing me overseas was a fucking drone. But, yeah, it's all this like red Queen measure countermeasure shit. Like, everyone's been sprinting as fast as possible to stay more or less in place for the last four years. Years.

[Adam Conover]

That's what I Liked about this company was I was like, is this for the military? And he was like, I mean, we're pitching the military, but, like, you know, mate, we talked to them, but, like, we think you could use it, you know, to like, guard a private, you know, like a power plant or like, I was like, use it at Coachella or whatever. I mean, I. Once on. There was an episode of Adam Ruins Everything where we couldn't shoot for, like, 90 minutes because some dumbass was flying a drone over the shoot, and we could. We had to find the guy to stop because it was like, could have used it that day.

[Robert Evans]

You had to break his legs. I remember that episode Adam Ruins.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, that's. I love that. I do love. I honestly, every time I hear about this, I just want to play with one. I just want to shoot at a.

[Robert Evans]

A guy.

[Adam Conover]

Like, duck hunt. Like you're playing guy.

[Robert Evans]

Jesus Christ.

[Ed Zicher]

No, a guy in the sky.

[Robert Evans]

Okay. Okay.

[Ed Zicher]

If you see a guy in your air.

[Ed Zetron]

That's what I mean. Exactly.

[Robert Evans]

What I mean. Exactly.

[Ed Zetron]

That's what I mean.

[Carissa Bell]

Not a.

[Ed Zetron]

Not a guy. I'm just looking at in the streets.

[Robert Evans]

No, my.

[Ed Zetron]

In capturing my nuts.

[Ed Zicher]

He's got to be high enough that the.

[Carissa Bell]

That the.

[Ed Zicher]

The fan guns have to be able to aim at him.

[Robert Evans]

I mean, the last time I saw the Blue Angels at Fleet, during fleet week in San Francisco, I couldn't stop myself from thinking, like, I could take them. Like, I could take them. I feel like I could take them.

[Ed Zicher]

Yeah, take them.

[Ed Zetron]

Why not take them with you?

[Advertisement Voice]

Take them in what way?

[Robert Evans]

Well, they're flying real close to each other. I feel like it's not hard to that up.

[Adam Conover]

Oh, just give them a shove.

[Robert Evans]

Just like a big rock. Just a little shove. Just like a rock or something like Shubski. Because they're in a plane. Yeah, Rock, sure. Yeah, yeah.

[Ed Zicher]

Wait, no, we do actually want to know what.

[Adam Conover]

How.

[Ed Zicher]

Take them how?

[Robert Evans]

Okay, so they're flying pretty low.

[Ed Zicher]

If I ever need to take the Blue Angels, I would like these. How low? Like, are we talking 150ft?

[Robert Evans]

Like, if you get on top of the Salesforce tower when they're doing some of those, like, really low flights, and you get like a potato gun, you could get one of those lodged right into one of the air intake things.

[Ed Zicher]

Oh, sure.

[Robert Evans]

And they're probably like. They're. They're going so fast. I feel like any little mistake would be catastrophic. Yeah, he is.

[Adam Conover]

And don't get him started on how we'd up the Harlem Globetrotters. Okay.

[Robert Evans]

Kill those Motherfuckers.

[Jared Newman]

That manhunt look.

[Ed Zetron]

Look like, you know, you're, like, posted up on the Salesforce Tower.

[Jared Newman]

You used a potato gun.

[Robert Evans]

Parody. Yeah, parody. It was a joke. That was a bit. He's doing.

[Ed Zetron]

He's doing bands. His bands. Bants were bands. Bants. Yeah, bands. But, yeah, it's so. It is quite funny watching people, like, I'm gonna call you too.

[Advertisement Voice]

Normal.

[Ed Zetron]

I think that that's fair.

[Advertisement Voice]

Yeah.

[Jared Newman]

Watching.

[Ed Zicher]

A lot of my exes would disagree.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, sure. And I don't know. But Normal.

[Advertisement Voice]

Normal.

[Ed Zetron]

You've seen this show, and it's funny watching regular people just be like, yeah, so most of it's useless. Most of it doesn't work. Some of it. Most of it won't never exist.

[Ed Zicher]

I mean, I asked the question in the last episode with none of these guys here. I basically said, what does. What is the point of ces? I was like, what. Does anybody walk away from CES with the people who are involved in it?

[Adam Conover]

Yeah. Well, I was asking Edward, and maybe someone here knows the answer. Who's the customer? Like, I went to Toy Fair once, and at Toy Fair, there's. There's buyers from retail chains walking around going like, yes, I'll take 10,000 sticky hands or whatever, which makes sense.

[Ed Zetron]

Who here.

[Adam Conover]

It's not custom. Like, who's.

[Robert Evans]

There are. So there's CES is really a couple of different events, Right. Huge number of the booths here. Particularly when you get to the areas where all of the company. All the booths are small, and all of the companies. I have different Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, or Taiwanese names. When you get to that chunk of the show, most of the people who are walking around those booths, it's not like journalists, because in a lot of cases, a bunch of the booths have the same products that are just slightly different. The same battery, but a different case. Because who's advertising? There are OEMs. It's factories and manufacturers of different things that are advertising. We make this. We make this, make this. And you can, like, buy this part to make or to sell, like, as part of other tech gear. Right, right. And there are buyers and there are representatives of companies that are, like, looking to contract with manufacturers and whatnot. Who make. Can do business here. That's like a chunk of the event that we don't have really any, because that's not. Journalists aren't interested in that.

[Ed Zetron]

And that's a lot of Eureka.

[Robert Evans]

Most of that.

[Ed Zetron]

Eureka park is kind of full of these. I was mentioning earlier, like, photonics, center senses and weird things.

[Robert Evans]

Just for, like, one group, I went past, like, 20 booths that were all just selling different pieces of solar panels. Right? Yeah, that's not for me. I'm very valid. Right. And that's fine. And that. So that's like, a big chunk of the event. And then another chunk of the event is consumer electronics, which is where most of the bullshit is. Right. Because it's like 80%, well, this. No one will ever buy this. This is a terrible idea. And 20% ranging from, okay, there's probably a customer for this, to, like, oh, that's actually really cool. And then the third chunk of the event, which journalists are also involved in, is, like, this is not a product yet, but it will be. Or these are ways in which we are looking to integrate technology into, like, things that are above the consumer level. Like all of the smart city stuff, all of, like, the smart vehicle stuff. Right. Where journalists are interested in that, consumers are interested in that. But you, as a consumer aren't going to go buy a smart street light. Right?

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah.

[Robert Evans]

So I kind of look at it as, like, those are the three events that CES is.

[Adam Conover]

Okay, that's clarifying. Thank you.

[Ed Zetron]

I think, like, the majority of this year just feels like chat GPT rappers.

[Carissa Bell]

Yeah.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah. That's most of what. Most of what I've seen is some form of AI chatbot integration, or glasses have chat bots.

[Adam Conover]

I saw one interesting.

[Ed Zetron]

We.

[Adam Conover]

We talked to one vendor that was like, an AI thing that actually seemed to kind of do something.

[Ed Zetron]

Okay.

[Adam Conover]

I'm curious which was they. Okay, if you have an autonomous. Autonomous driving system and it goes on a drive and the drive doesn't go well, this will simulate a slight version of the. Like, they can take a real drive, turn it into a simulation, and then have the agent or whatever it is, the Waymo, do it again, like, in its head to like, make it do it better the next time. I'm like, okay, that seems like an AI company that a different one of these companies might contract with.

[Robert Evans]

What I like about that is that that's a company. I don't know how well this product will work, but that's a company that's thinking about solving a problem. Yes. I always gravitate towards, like, someone identified a problem and they made a thing, maybe it doesn't work. That's a fucking invention.

[Ed Zetron]

As opposed to the ones just making up a problem and then failing to solve it.

[Robert Evans]

You know how your kid doesn't have a robot hallucinating horoscopes for it? Well, we've solved that issue.

[Ed Zetron]

What does your, does your, does your kid think that Taiwan is Taiwan or China?

[Robert Evans]

Right.

[Ed Zetron]

Well, this, this, this toy is going to tell your child that it has offended it terribly. Do not mention Winnie the Pooh. It's an AI bot. You will get fucking drunk, you little shit. Claude, don't talk about Tiananmen. Swear.

[Robert Evans]

Is your four year old having too much trouble finding which under the sink chemicals are most caustic? This new teddy bear will make sure they know and how to open all your pill bottles.

[Ed Zetron]

This adorable rabbit will teach your 5 year old about BDSM. And what's funny is we are sounding like we're making jokes.

[Robert Evans]

More or less. Real product.

[Ed Zetron]

This is a thing happening today. Welcome, welcome. Because you may be thinking, well, also doesn't it do all the assistant stuff? And you'll be surprised to hear it does not. None of this every. I am like, I would actually love to be elated. I would love to see something. I'd love to. I brought in so many people spoken so many hours and I swear to fucking God. I'm trying. I'm trying.

[Robert Evans]

There's some like there was. Okay. A cool thing I saw today is this company that is advertising like paper batteries. Right? Okay. And the actual battery isn't paper, but like the, the battery, like the core of the battery is made out of cellulose. And so the only other. And that decomposes. And so basically instead of dealing with batteries the way you do now with batteries like this, you throw them into compost, you compost them and then you filter the metal bits out and you can recycle the metal bits separately and then the compost is usable compost. Right.

[Ed Zetron]

That's useful.

[Advertisement Voice]

Sounds great.

[Robert Evans]

Again, I have not looked into this company and done like third party reports. I also hear how they are claiming it works. I don't know if it works, but it's at least an idea.

[Ed Zetron]

And if we establish by here filter the metals, I'm like, but you know what?

[Robert Evans]

Again. And I'm also like, yeah, who's going to be doing that also?

[Ed Zetron]

But that has great ramifications for, for disposable things. That's for vapor.

[Robert Evans]

Someone's trying to take humanity a step forward and at least that's good.

[Ed Zetron]

As opposed to like the 18th different vacuous autonomous driving cars.

[Robert Evans]

As opposed to what I saw next to that booth. Oh yeah. Meat, which the company name is just Mm E E T T. Don't know what that means. And they have an AI business card. They actually have two different card products. One is it's the size of a business card. If a business card was way thicker and couldn't actually fit in your wallet and would be super easy to break even if it wasn't your wallet. Okay, sick. But you tap it to someone's phone and if they' phone has an NFT reader, like, or not nft.

[Ed Zetron]

Nfc.

[Robert Evans]

Nfc. Sorry, nfc.

[Ed Zetron]

No, I couldn't.

[Robert Evans]

If your phone has an NFC reader, it'll populate automatically with their like business card.

[Ed Zetron]

One quick problem.

[Robert Evans]

Sure.

[Ed Zetron]

If you bump most phones together, it will do this without you having like an easily breakable piece of electronics.

[Robert Evans]

Interesting. What if I told you it also as long as you have an Internet connection can translate things because they can just stick that on whatever. Now I would. Using a shitty speaker, I assume.

[Ed Zetron]

Oh well, I'm sold. I. I just fucking.

[Robert Evans]

And the other product they had was a thicker card that they bragged was as thin as 3 millimeters. Houses four AI assistants. All the chatbots, they don't actually live in the product. Again, it's connecting.

[Ed Zicher]

Why do you need four to the Internet streaming.

[Ed Zetron]

Okay, but just really simple is question, what is 4? Is that just different? That's just prompt engineering. These motherfuckers are claiming there's like 11 AI.

[Robert Evans]

No, no, you're being unfair. They've got the AI meeting assistant. Turn conversations anywhere into summaries, insights and action items to boost productivity. They've got an AI translation assistant. Break language barriers across 145 languages.

[Ed Zicher]

So there's not four AIs.

[Robert Evans]

No, it's just four different things.

[Ed Zetron]

The a. Yeah, it does. It's just prompt engineering.

[Robert Evans]

I do think they were lying.

[Ed Zicher]

So to explain, because it's like all using ChatGPT.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah.

[Robert Evans]

So to explain, a sales assistant, which.

[Ed Zetron]

Is so prompt engineering is literally just every single AI product you have ever seen on this floor is just prompts. It's prompts for the API and telling it you are a sales assistant. You are a meeting assistant. That's all it is. It's just text. It's just. It's all text. Every single one of these is just text. I am.

[Robert Evans]

Yep. What about pixels?

[Adam Conover]

Yeah, sometimes it's pixels.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, it's multimodal and multiple inspiration assistant capture finding ideas and develop them into future possibilities.

[Ed Zicher]

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

[Adam Conover]

You could use that.

[Jared Newman]

You're a writer.

[Adam Conover]

You could use that.

[Ed Zicher]

Exactly.

[Robert Evans]

When people say that, what do you mean?

[Ed Zicher]

Capture fleeting ideas? Do you mean have an idea? Focus on it in I've got to be clear, your own brain?

[Jared Newman]

No.

[Robert Evans]

Not allowed.

[Ed Zicher]

Then when you can't, an AI can't. If it's fleeting, it leaves your brain faster than you can type it into your business card.

[Robert Evans]

I'm thinking about, like. Cause I keep a notebook and sometimes I like, jot down ideas in it. I'm thinking about, like that time I woke up after blacking out and just written on a page in the notebook was Hitler with abs, question mark?

[Ed Zicher]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's good, that's good, that's good.

[Robert Evans]

The AI could have really helped me. That could have have been something. You know, Hitler with abs could have been the next Google.

[Ed Zicher]

Wow.

[Adam Conover]

Robert Hitler with abs sure is an invigorating and original idea. You're not just coming up with an idea.

[Jared Newman]

You're touching into something that everyone else is feeling.

[Robert Evans]

What if he had abs? What if he had abs? Right?

[Ed Zetron]

So I'm.

[Jared Newman]

As we wrap.

[Adam Conover]

Not just an idea. It's a revolution.

[Robert Evans]

That's another great Hitler with abs. That real quick.

[Ed Zetron]

It's like another one of those tweets about AI where it's like every AI thing is like. It's not just big, it's huge.

[Adam Conover]

That has literally become to me in the last month that has. If I. Whenever I see it's not X, it's Y, I'm like, that's LLM.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah. So I. As we wrap up and Adam is finally released into the. Into the wild again. He's. I'm just going to tell you the worst name I saw on the show floor, and I look good. And it would be Junky Cream.

[Ed Zicher]

Yeah, Yeah. I caught Junky.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, that's hard to beat.

[Ed Zetron]

Junky Cream we love and it is just an AI slop company. It was just like. It just. I. I don't want to talk about what they did because they couldn't work it out. And also, it was very obvious they were trying to be like.

[Robert Evans]

Because it's not a crazy.

[Ed Zicher]

That's so. That's exactly. No, no, it's like an. It's like an illustration. It's like an. It's like semi animation producing whatever.

[Ed Zetron]

It's very clearly meant to make you go, junkie cream.

[Ed Zicher]

Right. And that's actually exactly why I.

[Ed Zetron]

It looks like. Come.

[Ed Zicher]

I haven't brought it up because I. I saw it yesterday and I was like, junkie Cream. That's crazy. And then as soon as you walk over, it's. The whole vibe is. Isn't this crazy?

[Robert Evans]

We named it Junkie Cream.

[Ed Zicher]

That ruins it. Like, that's not. It's not. It's not funny anymore.

[Adam Conover]

There's a couple of those you're talking about yesterday, the jerk off, the handy.

[Ed Zetron]

No, and I saw that. I saw that today. Yeah, I get exactly what you mean though. It's like a. You can look, it's not, it's not your grandma's jack off machine. And it's like a very sad thing.

[Ed Zicher]

It's only funny when it's when the product is in earnest. Like.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah, the.

[Ed Zicher]

Okay, I think, Edward, I think you were talking about toilet cams, but I then saw, I think a different toilet cam than you did. And when the guy was explaining it to me, he was, first of all, the. The words camera in your toilet are.

[Robert Evans]

At least that idea to a woman.

[Ed Zetron]

Serious camera. Camera and a toilet, four words that.

[Ed Zicher]

You can string together.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah.

[Ed Zicher]

And so then when he was explaining it, he was like, yeah, and so then the camera. So you put the c. You put the thing in.

[Robert Evans]

I'm already up.

[Ed Zicher]

And he put. You put the camera in your toilet. And. And he goes.

[Carissa Bell]

And.

[Ed Zicher]

And I said, I was like. And it's facing down, right? And he goes, yeah, he goes, he goes, obviously it's facing down. And I was like. And then he paused and he goes. Or maybe it was. Wasn't obvious. And I was like, yeah, honestly, it was not obvious.

[Robert Evans]

I love putting a toilet in a. Or a camera in a toilet. Everything's on the table from you. I don't know what you might do.

[Ed Zicher]

Yeah. And what happens to those photos? Yeah, and what, what, what fucked up.

[Ed Zetron]

They are used to train the toilet camera.

[Robert Evans]

What is this product supposed to do?

[Ed Zicher]

It's looking at your shit and going, hey, you gotta drink more water.

[Robert Evans]

That's the way it does it.

[Ed Zicher]

It's insane with a permanent camera.

[Ed Zetron]

No, I forget who posted it, but it's like. Yeah, I know. It's because my piss is like, like, looks like a high viz vest.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Adam Conover]

Like the consistency of your poop is already. You know it when it's happening.

[Robert Evans]

If you're wondering.

[Adam Conover]

I have diarrhea. Yeah, yeah, tell me I have diarrhea.

[Ed Zicher]

I always ask them. And this little machine has so many pieces to it. Like it's probably, you know, like as you're holding it, it feels like it's probably like four separate housings that have been attached together to like make it all work right. And I say that it looks. It looks fine. I just say that to say there's a lot of seams in the thing.

[Robert Evans]

Sure.

[Ed Zetron]

And a lot of pictures of piss and presumably where that comes from.

[Ed Zicher]

That's in the cloud. That's for anybody that access.

[Ed Zetron]

Oh, good. I'm sure that won't be breached.

[Ed Zicher]

But I, I said, I was like, how do you clean the toilet cam? And he said, oh, you clean it in the same way that you would clean your toilet. And I was like, well, first.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Ed Zicher]

Really weird answer. Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

Like, how does he clean his toilet?

[Ed Zicher]

Yeah, how does he clean his toilet?

[Robert Evans]

The follow up question, how often?

[Ed Zicher]

Also, this is sitting on the rim. I like, I'm happy to use the scrub brush, but it is once a year at best that I really like getting there with elbow grease around the rim. And then this thing has so many a year. Once a year.

[Ed Zetron]

Yeah, you got to do it once a year.

[Adam Conover]

I guess that's exactly how I pay a lady.

[Ed Zicher]

To clean your toilet.

[Adam Conover]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. To clean my toilet.

[Ed Zicher]

I meant to look through the photo. Also, I have a camera on my toilet. It is called my cell phone, which I bring with me every time I use the toilet.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

Also just if you. I'm just gonna. As we wrap the episode, I think the statement I want to make is if you are thinking, I'm gonna put a camera in a toilet, you're a fucking scumbag. I'm sorry. I'm like. It just.

[Ed Zicher]

I met the guy who founded the company and he seemed sweet and like he just had bad shits.

[Jared Newman]

Yeah.

[Ed Zicher]

But it is like, I don't know, buddy. A camera can't be the.

[Adam Conover]

I just.

[Ed Zetron]

But I think the. Go on, Robert.

[Robert Evans]

I mean, it's just. Cause you're right that this is something that is going to be more immediately. Like more women are going to immediately respond negatively to this idea than men because there's a chunk of men. I'm sure there's a smaller number of women too, but there's a chunk of men who have absolutely no interest in their own privacy, have absolutely no concerns about privacy and are shocked and kind of scared when they realize other people have a sense of privacy. And most of those guys work in the tech industry.

[Ed Zicher]

Sense of threat, Right?

[Robert Evans]

Exactly. Who are like, what? You don't want a camera on you at all times? You don't want a camera on you like when you're having sex. That's weird.

[Ed Zicher]

Yeah.

[Robert Evans]

You wouldn't know data on. Yeah, you would be upset if I.

[Ed Zetron]

Had a camera in a public space trained on you.

[Robert Evans]

You don't post about how many erections a robot bots that you have every night.

[Ed Zetron]

Oh my God. I bet that's it. All right, we're gonna wrap Up. I'm gonna read my favorite name from the. The. The show floor. Shenzhen City, Wanzeda. To motor manufacturer co. Ltd. That's a fucking name. Shenzhen Pan Brain Technology co. Ltd. Pan Brain.

[Robert Evans]

These are like brain Brain. Like, in a head.

[Jared Newman]

Yeah. It's like.

[Ed Zetron]

It's actually a really worrying photo. I don't know if I can really see.

[Robert Evans]

That's just like.

[Ed Zetron]

Like a guy sitting there. Fall asleep Foster. And it looks like a sleep apnea mask, but it just looks like a horrifying thing.

[Ed Zicher]

It looks like something that people use in kink.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Ed Zetron]

Looks like how the guy in Manhunter was like, towards the.

[Adam Conover]

Anyway, can I tell one more story?

[Ed Zetron]

Please, please, please?

[Adam Conover]

Okay. Just. This is the most useful thing that I'm gonna leave with. And Edward was there, so you can jump into the story if you want. We went to the Waymo booth.

[Jared Newman]

Yeah, right.

[Adam Conover]

Which was mostly just, waymo is here. You know, Waymo. Here it is. But they had a little line, and if you scanned your badge and you push a button, it would dispense a little. A little goodie for you. And first of all, very clearly, there's just a person in there.

[Ed Zetron]

They get very upset if you suggest otherwise, really.

[Adam Conover]

If you suggest that they are a person. But, like, sometimes you'd scan your thing, and then sometimes it would take, like, four or five seconds. And, like, the little pin would, like, come out at an irregular angle. There's a guy back there. And, like, that's much cheaper than any other mechanism. Mechanism. And then you take the little pin and they go, oh, you're a winner. Everybody was a winner. But, like, oh, you're a winner. And then you go to a different guy, and they give you a Waymo hat and a little beanie. And tomorrow I'm flying to Madison, Wisconsin. It's gonna be cold. I didn't bring a hat.

[Jared Newman]

So that's.

[Adam Conover]

Waymo has made my life become a corporate shill.

[Ed Zetron]

Well, you know what?

[Ed Zicher]

Advertise for Waymo.

[Adam Conover]

I think it's gonna be pretty clear it's ironic.

[Robert Evans]

Okay.

[Adam Conover]

If my hat says Way, Adam, we.

[Ed Zetron]

Know how that's gone in the past.

[Adam Conover]

Oh, my God.

[Ed Zetron]

I'm sorry.

[Ed Zicher]

You should make the hat say, I'm sorry.

[Ed Zetron]

So sorry.

[Robert Evans]

I'm a little. I'm a little tipsy. So for a second, it was unclear to me. I thought you were saying that Waymo had given you a ticket to Madison, Wisconsin. I was like, what an incredible advertising platform.

[Ed Zetron]

Bossing.

[Robert Evans]

Stand up. We're flying half a CES to Madison.

[Ed Zetron]

Get in there.

[Robert Evans]

Yeah. All right.

[Ed Zetron]

As we wrap this up and Adam has to. He has to go. Adam, plug your stuff. Plug your shit.

[Adam Conover]

Okay, I'll be. Well, listen, the factually podcast, which of course sometimes, but I'm going to be in Madison, Wisconsin to stay out this weekend, a comedy on State. Next week I'll be Fort Wayne Summit Comedy Club. After that, Louisville, Houston, Texas, and finally taping a special on at the Punchline in San Francisco from February 19th through 21st.

[Ed Zetron]

Lovely. Chloe, why don't you. Because you do this too.

[Ed Zicher]

Yeah, I do this too. This weekend I'll be in Cincinnati. Next weekend I'll be in Washington, D.C. and the Week after that, not the weekend, I will be doing my solo show called Channel cheat in Philadelphia, January 2021 and 22. And then at the end of January, I'll be in Vermont and then Fort Collins and then Fargo. Going to Fargo.

[Adam Conover]

Okay, that's cool. That's gonna be colder than Madison.

[Ed Zicher]

Oh, yeah, of course.

[Ed Zetron]

And as we wrap, of course, in honor of Sean Paul Adams, friend of the show, passed last year, please dedicate this to and donate to the Pediatric Epilepsy Research Consortium. Sean Paul's son is epileptic and stuff. Family would deeply appreciate it. Thank you so much for listening for another day of Better Offline. We'll be back tomorrow and Friday a little bit on Saturday. I love you all. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening to Better Offline. The editor and composer of the Better Offline theme song is Matt Osowski. You can check out more of his music and audio [e-mail] m a t t o s o w s k I dot com. You can email me at ezetteroffline.com or visit betteroffline.com to find more podcast links and of course my newsletter. I also really recommend you go to chat wheresyoured at to visit the Discord and go to R betteroffline to check out our Reddit. Thank you so much for listening.

[Carissa Bell]

Better Offline is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more from Cool Zone Media, Visit our website coolzonemedia.com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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