The promise of artificial intelligence was front and center at this year’s . But spicing up a simple machine like a refrigerator with unnecessary AI was also a surefire way to win the 鈥淲orst in Show.鈥�
The that no tech company wants to win announced its decisions Thursday. Among those getting the notorious 鈥渁nti-awards鈥� for invasive, wasteful or fragile products were an eye-tracking AI 鈥渟oulmate鈥� companion for combating loneliness, and new AI features for Amazon’s widely used doorbell cameras.
Shouting at a 鈥榖espoke AI鈥� fridge that also hawks grocery products
Samsung’s 鈥淏espoke AI Family Hub鈥� refrigerator received the overall 鈥淲orst in Show鈥� recognition from the group of consumer and privacy advocates who judged the contest.
Samsung invites users to speak to the refrigerator and command it to open or close the door, but a demonstration at the sprawling Las Vegas technology expo showed it didn’t always detect what people were saying if there was too much ambient noise. That was just part of the complications and reliability concerns Samsung added to an appliance that’s supposed to have one important job: keeping food cold, said Gay Gordon-Byrne of the Digital Right to Repair Coalition in a recorded video ceremony announcing the anti-awards.
鈥淓verything is an order of magnitude more difficult,鈥� she said of the fridge that also uses computer vision to track when food items are running low and can advertise replacements.
Samsung said in response that 鈥渁 trade show floor is naturally very different from a consumer鈥檚 home environment. Our Bespoke AI experiences are designed to simplify decisions around the home, making life more convenient and enjoyable.鈥�
The South Korean tech giant also said 鈥渟ecurity and privacy are foundational鈥� to the AI experiences in the fridge.
Who decides what’s 鈥榃orst in Show鈥�
The judges have no affiliation with CES or the trade group that runs the show.
They say they make the choices based on how uniquely bad a product is, what impact it could have if widely adopted and if it was significantly worse than previous versions of similar technology. The judges represent groups including Consumer Reports, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and right-to-repair advocates iFixit.
鈥淲e definitely intend some shame,鈥� said iFixit’s director of sustainability, Elizabeth Chamberlain, in an interview. 鈥淲e do hope that manufacturers see this as a poke, as an impetus to do better next time. But our goal isn鈥檛 to really shame any particular manufacturer as such. We鈥檙e hoping that they鈥檒l make changes as a result of it. We鈥檙e pointing to trends that we see in the industry as a whole. And a lot of the things that we鈥檙e calling out, we picked an individual product, but we could have picked a whole category.鈥�
Amazon’s doorbells once again ring privacy alarms
An array of new features for Amazon’s Ring doorbell camera system won the 鈥淲orst in Show鈥� for privacy for 鈥渄oubling down on privacy invasion and supporting the misconception that more surveillance always makes us safer,鈥� said Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Among the new Ring features is an 鈥淎I Unusual Event Alert鈥� that is supposed to detect unexpected people or happenings like the arrival of a 鈥減ack of coyotes.鈥�
鈥淭hat includes facial recognition,鈥� Cohn said of the new Ring features. 鈥淚t includes mobile surveillance towers that can be deployed at parking lots and other places, and it includes an app store that鈥檚 going to let people develop even sketchier apps for the doorbell than the ones that Amazon already provides.鈥�
Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Deskbound AI 鈥榮oulmate鈥� companion is always watching your eyes
Winning the 鈥淧eople’s Choice鈥� of worst products was an AI companion called Ami, made by Chinese company Lepro, which mostly sells lamps and lighting technology. Ami appears as a female avatar on a curved screen that is marketed as 鈥測our always-on 3D soulmate,鈥� designed for remote workers looking for private and 鈥渆mpathetic鈥� interactions during long days at the home office. It tracks eye movements and other emotional signals, like tone of voice.
The group says it is calling out Lepro 鈥渇or having the audacity to suggest that an AI video surveillance device on a desk could be anyone鈥檚 soulmate.鈥� Advocates acknowledged the device comes with a physical camera shutter but said they were unsettled by its 鈥渁lways-on鈥� marketing.
Lepro didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tech lollipop gets dinged for environmental waste
Lollipop Star attracted attention early at CES as a candy that plays music while you eat it. Its creators say it uses bone induction technology to enable people to hear songs 鈥� like tracks from Ice Spice and Akon 鈥� through the lollipop as they bite it using their back teeth. But the sticks can’t be recharged or reused after the candy is gone, leaving consumer advocate Nathan Proctor to give it a 鈥淲orst in Show鈥� for the environment.
鈥淲e need to stop making so many disposable electronics, which are full of toxic chemicals, require critical minerals to produce and can burn down waste facilities,鈥� said Proctor, who directs the Public Interest Research Group’s right-to-repair campaign.
A spokesperson for Lollipop Star maker Lava Brand didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
A treadmill powered by an AI chatbot fitness coach raises security concerns
鈥淲orst in Show鈥� for security went to Merach’s internet-connected treadmill that boasts of having the industry’s first AI coach powered by a large language model that can converse with the user but also proactively adjust the speed and incline based on heart rate changes.
All that collection of biometric data and behavioral inferences raised concerns for security advocates, but so did the fine print of a privacy policy that stated: 鈥淲e cannot guarantee the security of your personal information.鈥�
China-based Merach didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Talking coffee makers and making e-bikes hard to fix
German tech company Bosch received two 鈥淲orst in Show鈥� awards, one for adding subscriptions and enhanced voice assistance from Amazon’s Alexa to coffee-making with a 鈥淧ersonal AI Barista鈥� espresso machine and another for a purported anti-theft and battery lock feature on an e-bike app.
Cory Doctorow, author of the book 鈥淓nshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It鈥� and himself a 鈥淲orst in Show鈥� judge, criticized Bosch’s 鈥減arts pairing鈥� to digitally connect an e-bike with its parts, like motors and batteries, in a way that flags a part if it appeared on a database of stolen products.
Even if Bosch doesn’t seek to prosecute its own customers for routine repairs, Doctorow said it could always change its deal with them later, in line with his theory of the decay of online platforms as companies exploit the customers they earlier won over.
Bosch countered that the 鈥淲orst in Show鈥� commentators were misleadingly suggesting the company is forcing consumers to utilize features that are optional and, in the case of the espresso machine, already popular.
Bosch said in a statement Thursday 鈥渢hat earning and keeping trust with our consumers, especially in the areas of privacy and cybersecurity, is at the core of our company鈥檚 values. Both Bosch Home Appliances and Bosch eBike Systems protect their consumers against unauthorized tampering or control through a comprehensive security concept, using encryption and authentication.鈥�
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AP video journalist James Brooks contributed to this report from Las Vegas.
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