AI in 2025: Are We Really Getting Smarter?
It’s 2025, and we’re still scratching our heads over AI’s true purpose in our lives. This year’s CES showcased an array of AI-infused products, from kitchen gadgets to baby cribs, many of which left us wondering if anyone truly needed them. Take Spicerr, for instance—a “smart” spice dispenser with a touchscreen that claims to learn your taste preferences and suggest unique recipes. Sounds intriguing? Perhaps. But Spicerr doesn’t grind spices and requires pricey proprietary capsules that aren’t refillable. Did the world really need a recipe-suggesting salt shaker?
- Spicerr: A pricey spice dispenser relying on non-refillable capsules.
- ChefMaker 2: An AI-powered air fryer that reads cookbooks and calculates cooking times—features few asked for.
- Project Ava: An AI gaming copilot offering delayed advice by interrupting game audio—hardly a necessity for gamers.
“AI companies raised $97 billion last year in the U.S., enough to buy 42 Spheres,” reports TechCrunch, illustrating the vast investments fueling these innovations.
{Source: TechCrunch}
Consider Dreo’s ChefMaker 2, an AI-powered air fryer. While not as whimsical as Spicerr, it offers cookbook scanning and cooking time calculations. But is this really what air fryer enthusiasts have been longing for? As someone who loves a good air fry, I can’t say this feature ever made my wish list—and it seems I’m not alone.
Then there’s Razer’s Project Ava, an “AI gaming copilot” named after a killer robot from the movie “Ex Machina.” Ava captures your screen and provides game tips like “Dodge when the blade spins.” But with its several-second delay and audio interruptions, it’s more distracting than helpful—raising the question: who wanted this feature?
The proliferation of such AI products at CES highlights the tech industry’s hype machine. With $97 billion poured into U.S. AI ventures last year alone, companies are experimenting wildly, hoping something sticks. Yet, they often bump against AI’s current limitations—leading to over-promises and under-deliveries. ChatGPT still stumbles on facts, image generators miss the mark, and AI video characters awkwardly merge into one another.
So here we are in 2025, surrounded by AI inventions like air fryers, spice dispensers, and gaming copilots—not exactly what we dreamed of but representative of what’s possible with today’s technology at a minimal R&D cost. As we navigate this evolving landscape, it remains to be seen which AI applications will genuinely enrich our lives and which will fade into obscurity.
