Podcast Summary: "AI Robot Slaves and other CES Miracles"

Podcast: It Could Happen Here, Cool Zone Media & iHeartPodcasts
Air Date: January 12, 2026
Hosts: Jordan (Robert Evans), Garrison Davis
Guest: Ben Rose Porter (sociologist, CUNY)

Episode Overview

This episode is a ground-level dispatch from the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The hosts, joined by sociologist Ben Rose Porter, dissect the buzz, contradictions, and questionable innovations in the world of artificial intelligence and robotics. The discussion centers around the dominance of large language model (LLM) "wrappers," the widespread but hollow integration of AI (especially ChatGPT), and the sometimes unsettling marketing narratives—like robots as emotional companions or helpers—that surround these products. Underlying it all is skepticism about whether any of this is advancing technology or just gluing the appearance of progress atop existing products.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Ubiquity and Superficiality of AI at CES

• LLM "Wrappers" Everywhere:
  Most new products are not fundamentally new but are familiar devices (earbuds, glasses, necklaces, pins, toys, robots) with an LLM like ChatGPT/Amazon’s Gemini bolted on.
  • Jordan (02:18): “About 70% of the chatbot enabled products that I tried to interact with could not converse with me or could not do so in a functional way...the majority of those products just don't function.”
• Dependency on Cloud Connections:
  Because these AI-powered devices require an active internet connection (nothing is really on-device), the crowded convention's poor Wi-Fi meant almost nothing actually worked.
• Culture of Hype and Pretend Progress:
  Many demos are smoke-and-mirrors, hinging on speculative “potential” rather than concrete, demonstrable features.

2. Robots That Don’t Really Work

• No Real Advances in Home Robotics:
  Companies like LG showcase home assistant robots (e.g., "Cloyd") that can kind of move household items or fold laundry—badly.
  • Garrison (06:17): “The robot knows exactly how you want your croissants done. You don't even have to tell the robot. It already knows. And that's something that was stressful.”
  • Jordan (05:19): “Like LG's Cloyd ... we watched it ... [in] a demo where they're presumably... working better than it normally does. Cause it's a demo.”
• Dubious Claims of Empathy/Personality:
  Companies (and their PR staff) make wild claims about robots “knowing you,” having “core memories,” or “experiencing” things.
  • Jordan (07:23): “I talked to a couple of different people at booths who... that was the thing they were emphasizing: this is an AI that feels and gets to know you and has a relationship with you. And it's very... not what they would want publicly, because that's crazy. And none of the products actually work that way.”
• Are They Just Building (Non-Sentient) Robot Slaves?
  The ethical implications are skirted by insisting these are not sentient, despite marketing hinting otherwise.

3. Cheap Trick Demos and Hollow Marketing

• Fake Skits, Real Absence:
  Product demos rely on actors, with robots barely responding, but the act emphasizes “emotional connection” and “turning data into empathy.”
  • Ben (08:54): “The selling point of the robot was, I think they said, turning data into empathy. God knows what that means... None of it can actually be presented.”
• Sex Robots Now Have ChatGPT:
  Even sex dolls get AI “conversation” capabilities, but the focus remains on spectacle, not substantive improvement.
  • Garrison (11:06): “It activates my uncanny valley response way more... I could not look at the thing for very long.”

4. Commodification of ‘Empathy’ and the Upsell Society

• AI as a Tool for Transparent Manipulation:
  Some AI “innovations” target maximizing corporate revenue by steering consumer choices, e.g., car assistants that push products based on partnerships.
  • Jordan (22:13): “If Burger King wants to move... a specific kind of whopper... we can push it... If [Coke] want[s] to move Vanilla Coke... whenever people order anything, we can have it say, do you want to add a Vanilla Coke?”
  • Jordan (24:05): “They were the only thing... talking about [the] actual end users, as... a thing that you can pull extra money out of by tricking them... The product [is]: this machine can upsell you every minute of your day.”
• Endless Value Extraction:
  The speculative “promise of endless value,” both for customers and (especially) for companies.
  • Ben (19:58): “If you give over everything, there is this vague promise of transcendence and that like you will escape... misery...”

5. On-Device AI: Rare, Sane Innovations

• Positive Standouts:
  Some booths showcase genuinely useful on-device AI (translation or transcription not reliant on the cloud).
  • Jordan (13:08): Describes “Trans AI,” a Korean on-device translator with real utility and privacy benefits.
  • Garrison (17:28): “And that's why I did respect... companies like Trans AI... no matter where I am, even if I'm not connected to the Internet, I can translate and I can transcribe using this device. That's real utility.”
• Privacy vs. Surveillance Divide:
  Clear contrast between companies prioritizing user privacy (keeping data on-device) and those seeking to hoover up as much user data as possible and push it to the cloud.
  • Jordan (18:52): “That is... the most fundamental difference... between the companies that are embracing... AI: the ones whose default was like... we shouldn't have that on the cloud versus... why wouldn’t you put literally everything on the cloud?”

6. Tech Industry Running on Hype, Not Advancement

• Combining Old Products, Calling it New
  • Garrison (31:22): “So instead of actually having anything new... they're combining two older products and trying to pass it off as a new thing.”
  • Jordan (31:49): “Neither of these things are new.”
• Big Brands Are Absent or Hollow:
  Fewer major players display meaningful devices. Many booths instead push cloud solutions or industrial data applications, indicating a lack of fresh consumer products.
  • Garrison (32:23): “You see this walking through, like, the central hall... The Samsung booth isn't there. The Nikon booth isn't there. The Sony booth is mostly a car... a lot of these big companies are really absent from actual products.”

7. Self-Inflicted Problems and Illusory Solutions

• Solving Problems Tech Created:
  “Innovations” like in-car AI that yells at distracted drivers exist only because cars are now giant screens creating distractions.
• Spectacle > Substance:
  Home robots are less advanced than adjacent industrial robotics, but are marketed with extra layers of “AI” that add little or no value.
  • Garrison (33:57): “They're either trying to solve problems that they created or inventing solutions to things that aren't really problems.”

8. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On the Absurd Marketing of Robot Personality:

• Jordan (07:23): “Anytime you say, like, well, are you just saying you built a slave? Like, are you saying there's thinking, sentient robots that you have live in your house and do your laundry, isn't that a slave? And it's not actually because the robot doesn't think...”

On Empathy-As-Upsell:

• Jordan (40:06): “But reducing the concept of empathy to the robot knows when you might want snacks is kind of evil... Empathy means the robot knows when to serve you is like a bad way to talk about empathy.”

On Corporate Cynicism and Anthropomorphizing AI:

• Ben (40:09): “Our robot learns empathy by being instrumental to you and useful... the core of empathy.”
• Jordan, sarcastically (40:16): “We made our robot watch four hours of videos from Gaza and it immediately said, I bet those kids want a Hyundai Elantra...”

A Moment of Bleak Comedy:

• Garrison (38:07): “You know how you always want to hit your kid in the head with a liquor bottle? Now this anger with this tiny child sized robot.”
• Ben (39:05): “I would love to just do a booth where it's like we're teaching our robots hate. They know how to hate.”

9. Overall Tone and Takeaways

• The hosts mix sarcasm, exhaustion, and academic critique to capture the gap between tech industry promises and physical realities.
• They note the performative, theatrical aspect of the CES show—where “futuristic” is almost entirely branding.
• Underneath it all is a warning: most “AI” products are neither as useful nor as novel as they seem. Corporate interests use the language of empathy, intelligence, and connection to either extract more data or sell more stuff, not to advance real human thriving.

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:41 – Opening context, introduction at CES
• 01:36 – First impressions: most chatbot-enabled products don’t work
• 02:50-04:10 – Everything is now a physical wrapper for ChatGPT
• 05:19-07:48 – LG’s “Cloyd” robot: underwhelming demos and “robot memory”
• 08:04-10:14 – The “Amybot” demo and the emptiness of “data into empathy”
• 10:32-12:04 – Sex robots, uncanny valley, and what adding AI really means
• 12:49-13:43 – On-device AI (Trans AI translator) as genuine innovation
• 17:49-19:26 – Wearable emotion-tracking devices—a privacy crossroads
• 22:13-24:38 – AI built to upsell: The Soundhound AI case
• 29:28-32:47 – Why is LG pushing “Cloyd”? Running on fumes, branding over substance
• 33:57-34:56 – Tech “solutions” that solve problems caused by tech
• 37:51-39:19 – Bleak humor about child-companion robots and AI “sin eater” function
• 39:19-40:43 – The hollowing out of “empathy” and the closing thoughts

Final Thoughts

This episode delivers a caustically funny but earnest examination of tech industry self-delusion, with a sharp focus on AI’s role as both cultural placebo and corporate tool. Beyond the glitzy promises, what’s really for sale is a vision of the future where “empathy” is a language game, “connection” is a data transaction, and most real needs have been lost in a feedback loop of hype.

“Anyway, welcome to the future, everyone. It’s a CES miracle.”
– Jordan (40:39)

End of Summary