Asked if the robot was a sex robot, Kiguel said it was not and that you would be electrocuted if you tried.
ADVERTISEMENT Spice machine that helps you cook AI featured heavily across CES and was found in home devices.
TikTok users who already have the app on their phones will continue to have access to it.
ADVERTISEMENT TikTok, meanwhile, has been ‘on notice’ since 2020, during Trump’s first term, that its sale could be required if it couldn’t satisfy the US government’s national security concerns.
ADVERTISEMENT TikTok, which sued the government last year over the law, has long denied it could be used as a tool of Beijing.
Las Vegas’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is coming to an end, and in addition to showcasing the latest innovations from tech giants like Nvidia, Samsung, and BMW, the show floor is also filled with a lot of strange items.
Here are some of the items that drew our attention.
An electrocuted robot “girlfriend” if you get too close.
According to Andrew Kiguel, CEO of the American company Realbotix, the company demonstrated its artificial intelligence (AI) robots with a large breast and a tiny waist that could serve as a companion for “the loneliness epidemic” or as a brand representative at a CES-style event.
He went on to say that the robot, named Aria, could be employed in an assisted living facility for the elderly because it can remember and communicate health information, including when to take prescription drugs.
It will also give “a sense of connection with a robot that looks human and is AI-powered,” Kiguel said.
Some would contend that the robot’s impossibly female form is anything but human, but it all depends on your definition of what a human is.
Male passers-by of the stand said: “Finally, I’ve found the perfect girlfriend who doesn’t argue back,” while others leered at the robots.
When asked whether the robot was a sex robot, Kiguel replied that it wasn’t and that attempting to use it would result in electrocution.
Different price points are available for the robot. The one without a body and just a head and torso starts at $10,000 (€ 9,700), another that “comes apart like Lego” for travel costs $150,000 (€147,000), and a full-size robot with a full body that can move around fully and is AI-powered starts at $175,000 (€170,000).
Adorable, fluffy “joy” robot.
Two adorable robots were displayed by Yukai Engineering, a start-up company based in Tokyo. The company told Euronews Next that one fluffy one, called Mirumi, was made for “joy,” for the user and those around it.
It can clip onto handbags and is said to move its head like a baby that observes its environment.
The Nékojita FuFu, a clip-on cat that cools your food or drink by blowing on it, was another adorable little robot that the company showcased.
Your teeth can be cleaned in 20 seconds with this toothbrush.
Self-care devices are always popular at CES, and the French company DuoBrush showcased their Y-Brush Ultra and Y-Brush Essential toothbrushes, which can completely clean your teeth in 20 seconds.
A new U-shaped brush that looks like a mouthguard does get the job done. It operates by repeatedly chewing down on the gadget, which is powered similarly to a standard electronic toothbrush, according to Euronews Next’s test. When we tested it ourselves, however, it did take more than 20 seconds.
You can use a regular shaped brush instead of the U-shaped one, but it takes some time to get the motion just right.
A spice maker to assist with cooking.
AI was prevalent in home appliances and was a major theme at CES.
A food tech device called Spicerr uses artificial intelligence (AI) to determine how much spice is needed for a recipe and then dispenses it in capsules, eliminating the need for spoons and spice pots.
According to the manufacturer, it “adapts spices and recipes to your favourite flavours to create a personalised cooking experience”.
chair that either warms or cools your butt.
A chair that can heat and warm your butt was on display from the company Razer. With its self-regulating heater, the concept product was created with gamers in mind.
Additionally, a “bladeless fan system” is included to move air through the mesh backing of the chair.
A bill that would outlaw the video streaming service TikTok in the US unless it is run by its parent company based in China is likely to be upheld by the US Supreme Court.
The justices seemed persuaded by arguments that the national security threat posed by the company’s connections to China override concerns about restricting the speech either of TikTok or its 170 million users in the US.
Chief Justice John Roberts stated his primary concern early in the more than two and a half-hour-long arguments: ByteDance, a Chinese company, owns TikTok, and the parent company must collaborate with the Chinese government’s intelligence efforts.
If left in place, the law passed by bipartisan majorities in Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in April will require TikTok to ‘go dark’ on 19 January, lawyer Noel Francisco told the justices on behalf of TikTok.
Francisco asked the judges to put the case on hold for a while so TikTok could continue to function.
He said, “We might be in a different world again” when Donald Trump, the president-elect, assumes office on January 20.
Trump has also called for a postponement of the deadline in order to give himself more time to negotiate a “political resolution.” Trump has 14.7 million followers on TikTok.
It was unclear, however, if any justice would take this path.
It appears that one judge will support TikTok.
Only Justice Neil Gorsuch sounded like he would side with TikTok to find that the ban violates the Constitution.
Gorsuch described as a “paternalistic point of view” the arguments put forth by the Biden administration to defend the law.
TikTok, he said, has offered to post a warning that the content could be manipulated by the Chinese government.
Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who supported the law for the Biden administration, was asked, “Don’t we normally assume that the best remedy for problematic speech is counter speech?”.
A warning, however, would not be sufficient to stop the spread of false information, according to Prelogar.
Francisco and attorney Jeffrey Fisher, who represented TikTok users and content creators, made repeated attempts to direct the court’s attention to the First Amendment limitations that would apply to TikTok and its users, endangering the livelihood of content creators should the law be granted.
However, every justice except Gorsuch viewed them with skepticism in contrast to the moderately difficult questions posed to Prelogar.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh raised US concerns about China accessing information on tens of millions of Americans, including teenagers and people in their 20s, with whom TikTok is extremely popular.
Kavanaugh stated, “That seems like a huge concern for the future of the country.”.
Fisher claimed that TikTok’s ban infringed on the free speech rights of American users, but Roberts dismissed this claim.
Roberts declared, “The expression is acceptable to Congress.”. “They’ve decided that obtaining all this data about the 170 million TikTok users is a foreign adversary, and they’re not comfortable with it.”.
Francisco stated that a sale may never be feasible under the legal requirements, and ByteDance has stated that it will not sell the short-form video platform.
Federal law would forbid app stores like Apple and Google from carrying TikTok if it isn’t sold to an authorized buyer. It would also bar internet hosting services from hosting TikTok.
Those who already have the TikTok app installed on their phones will still be able to use it.
That will eventually render the app unworkable, the Justice Department has said in court filings.
TikTok, meanwhile, has been ‘on notice’ since 2020, during Trump’s first term, that its sale could be required if it couldn’t satisfy the US government’s national security concerns.
National security threat.
The federal law was the culmination of a years-long saga in Washington over TikTok, which the government sees as a national security threat due to its connections to China.
US officials argue that the vast amounts of user data that TikTok collects, including sensitive information on viewing habits, could fall into the hands of the Chinese government through coercion.
They also are concerned that the proprietary algorithm that fuels what users see on the app is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities, who could pressure ByteDance to shape content on the platform in a way that’s difficult to detect.
TikTok, which sued the government last year over the law, has long denied it could be used as a tool of Beijing.
The company negotiated with the Biden administration between 2021 and 2022 to resolve the concerns around US data privacy and potential algorithmic manipulation.
In court documents, it has accused the administration of essentially walking away from those negotiations after it presented a draft agreement in August 2022.
But the Justice Department has said the Biden administration concluded the proposal was “insufficient” because it would maintain TikTok’s ties to China.
The agency said the Executive Branch also could “neither trust ByteDance to comply nor detect noncompliance before it was too late”.
The Supreme Court justices are expected to act on this case within days, almost certainly ahead of the January 19 deadline. But new users won’t be able to download the app and existing ones will no longer be able to receive updates.
