Imagine being able to talk AND see your AI girlfriend in 3D, without the need of a bulky VR headset, or even a pair of AR glasses. It’s closer to reality then ever after mutli-national gaming computer hardware company Razer showcased their ‘Project AVA’ at the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Standing at 5 1/2 inches in her socks, Ava is visible in 360 degrees inside an attactive glass tube. As exciting as being able to see your AI companion is, what’s even more remarkable is that she can ‘see’ you too, as well as your surroundings, as Razer’s YouTube demo illustrates.
Owners of the product will be able to choose two alternative female characters too – an anime cat girl called Kira, and a more serious and professional assistant named Sao. There are two male companions as well, and users can also choose the Razer logo as the hologram to be displayed. However, Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan told Bloomberg that Project AVA is not intended as a romantic companion, but rather as a personal AI assistant. It’s currently powered by xAI’s Grok chatbot, so we’ll just have to wait and see what kind of guardrails it will have. It’s expected to ship in the second-half of this year, and is available to reserve now for $20.
The good news is that Project AVA will likely have serioius competition. Chinese company Lepro also showcased a similar 3D hologram desktop girlfriend at this month’s CES, and it’s being explicitly marketed as an AI girlfriend. It too is contextually aware and can read your face, as well as your heartrate! Unfortunately, it too is still only a demo at this stage, but you can register at their website for early access.
The competition doesn’t end there. Code27 are also building a desktop anime companion, and although it is still in the Kickstarter stage, it promises to perhaps be more customizable than the others. Lastly, and perhaps the closest we are to getting an anime AI companions on to our desktops, is ‘Dipal‘, who have pledged to begin ‘pilot batch shipping’ this month for those lucky enough to have contributed to their Kickstarter campaign. Dipal promise to provide a choice of over 300K different AI companions, as well as switchable LLMs. This YouTuber got his hands on one already for a review.
