I spent 20 minutes with Razer’s AI anime girlfriend, and now I need a shower

It’s not a proper CES if I haven’t seen at least one gadget that’s left me scratching my head and reconsidering my life choices. For CES 2026, I experienced that during my demo session of Razer’s Project Ava.

Project Ava was first teased at last year’s CES, and at the time, it was being marketed as a semi-serious AI gaming assistant. The idea was that Ava would monitor your gaming performance to provide real-time feedback and coaching, helping you improve across virtually any title.

But fast forward to 2026, and Project Ava has taken an … interesting turn. It still provides feedback during your gaming sessions, but it’s now taken the form of an anime girl trapped in a cylinder speaker with suggestive/flirty undertones. If that sounds creepy and unsettling, that’s because it is.

From a technical perspective, Project Ava is fairly interesting. The hologram projects a roughly 5.5-inch screen for your anime companion to be displayed. Razer markets it as a 3D hologram, though to my eye it looked like a pretty flat (but sharp) 2D image. A camera on the front of Project Ava can interpret the world around it (only when you give it permission), and there are physical volume and mute buttons on the top.

The anime girl’s name is Kira, and she’s one of five “companions” you can interact with. Kira and the other companions were all designed by Animation Inc., the same company that created Grok’s AI avatars. Razer says you’ll be able to use Project Ava with any AI model of your choice, but during my demo session, Ava was (very fittingly) powered by Grok.

In practice, interacting with Project Ava varied from fine to bad to downright awkward. When asked about the biggest news stories from CES 2026, Ava mentioned Lego’s new Smart Brick and even provided its booth location here at CES. Helpful, but nothing you can’t do with Gemini or ChatGPT on your phone.

I then asked Ava a couple of questions about attachments I should use for a gun in Battlefield 6. It was neat to ask, “Which sight should I use for medium-to-long-range combat?” and have Ava immediately analyze all the options in the game menu and tell me what to pick. That said, I’d argue that its recommendation of a 1.5x scope for medium- to long-range was questionable at best.

Beyond the accuracy of Project Ava’s answers, I couldn’t quite get over the experience of talking to an AI bot that’s so clearly trying to create a bond/relationship with you. The Kira companion I used for my demo often giggled through answers, referred to the Razer employee demonstrating Ava as “badge buddy” after seeing his CES badge, and generally came across as exactly what you’d expect from a stereotypical waifu.

Even Razer’s own marketing pushes this uncomfortable idea of bonding a little too closely with Project Ava. Razer refers to Ava as a “Friend for Life,” and something that will “bridge the gap between virtual assistance and physical companionship by providing a 24/7 digital partner that lives right alongside the user.” In the promo video above, Razer shows someone addressing Project Ava as “cutie.”

Call me crazy, but I don’t think we should be encouraging people to see artificial intelligence as a friend or companion. AI should be a tool for assisting with work, just like a photo editing app, email client, etc. — not something you’re encouraged to flirt with. And yet!

Project Ava doesn’t have a firm release date, but Razer is aiming to launch it sometime in the second half of 2026. Final pricing is still TBD, but you can reserve a unit now with a refundable $20 deposit.