Razer Appears Even Extra Confused About Its ‘AI Waifu’ Than the Remainder of Us

PC and peripherals maker Razer believes that any individual, someplace, is determined to place an anime cat lady on their desk, like their private imprisoned Tinkerbell who’s compelled to go with them on command. The company’s Project Ava contains both a feminine waifu or male husbando hologram housed inside a glass jar that makes use of conversational AI to speak to customers. The factor is, Razer doesn’t know when it will likely be out, or—apparently—a lot else about this gadget it guarantees can be an precise product.

We went hands-on with Challenge Ava throughout CES 2026. It’s full of expertise we’ve seen earlier than—specifically, an animated avatar and AI chatbot that’s meant to behave as a participant’s gaming mentor and desktop companion. Razer is usually recognized for its PC gaming laptops, mice, and headsets, nevertheless it usually goes to CES with a fair few concept devices in tow; therefore Ava’s “Challenge” nomenclature. On this case, Razer swore to shoppers that Challenge Ava and its different AI gadget—a pair of headphones with cameras and AI visible capabilities called Project Motoko—would grow to be actual merchandise… finally.

Throughout an interview on The Verge’s Decoder podcast, Razer’s co-founder and CEO, Min-Liang Tan, couldn’t supply many specifics about what’s happening with its waifu in a jar, nor a lot about how folks can purchase it. Challenge Ava is currently open for “reservations” that value $20. These reservations will finally grow to be preorders with a promised, although imprecise, launch date within the second half of 2026. On the identical time, Tan mentioned they have been nonetheless getting suggestions and “hear[ing] what the considerations are.” And there definitely are considerations, contemplating we’ve but to see an AI-centric gadget accomplish something our present merchandise couldn’t already do.

Are you able to truly purchase Challenge Ava?

What’s extra, Razer hasn’t settled on what’s truly happening inside its AI companion gadget. Tan mentioned, “We’ve not disclosed the precise specs of the product, and never even, for instance, which character fashions, and even which mannequin it’s gonna be working at this cut-off date. We’re leaving that completely open.” Razer beforehand instructed Gizmodo it was working with esports stars to doubtlessly stick their mugs and voices within the jar. Hopefully, it’s snug with the brand new parasocial relationships shoppers will naturally create with their likeness.

Tan additionally instructed The Verge’s Nilay Patel, “So what we’ve got truly mentioned is that these are reservations. They’re not pre-orders, per se. So, in the end, once we do launch the product, and it may very well be a great distance out, by then, due to the specs.”

In an e-mail assertion to Gizmodo, Razer mentioned, “The $20 reservation for Challenge Ava is a refundable deposit in the direction of the ultimate buy value of the product. We could have extra data on pre-orders for Challenge Ava sooner or later and look ahead to sharing extra data quickly.”

Primarily, the reservation is a preorder for a preorder. It units you up in line to get a Challenge Ava (figuring out that’s undoubtedly not the ultimate title) with the hope that you simply’ll truly need it as soon as the corporate reveals what’s truly happening inside. On its product web page, Razer guarantees you’ll be able to cancel the reservation and ask for a refund. The corporate additional implied that Challenge Ava could also be in sizzling demand, and solely those that get in line first can hope to get their waifu shipped to their door at some imprecise future date.

Razer’s CEO doesn’t see the issue with Elon Musk’s Grok

Challenge Ava, as an AI chatbot companion, was already an idea Razer had proven off earlier than. The hooked up waifu hologram is merely a facade for what we’ve skilled earlier than from the likes of Microsoft. The “Gaming Copilot” continues to be in beta, and it’s at present horrible at what it’s speculated to do. In some instances, Copilot doesn’t even know a recreation’s controls, despite the fact that they have been printed by Microsoft’s Xbox model. In my quick time with Challenge Ava, the waifu AI wouldn’t supply me any strong recommendation on the right way to handle recoil in a recreation like Battlefield 6. Thoughts you, the demo Razer set us up with was the sport’s goal apply mode that’s all about aiming.

Razer was reluctant to inform us precisely what was taking place contained in the glass jar, past the truth that it was utilizing Elon Musk’s brainchild, Grok, as its centerpiece AI mannequin. We additionally thought that was an odd selection. When pressed, Razer instructed Gizmodo that Grok had the perfect conversational mannequin that helped it sound extra human-like. By no means thoughts that Grok is on the heart of quite a few controversies on X (previously Twitter), the place the chatbot was prepared to talk openly about “MechaHitler” and share nonconsensual sexual images. The rationale why Grok appears extra conversational is as a result of it’s designed with “tone” in thoughts and fewer guardrails—or, extra particularly, made to parrot Musk’s increasingly nativist worldview.

“My focus to this point has been extra by way of what’s the perfect conversational mannequin that we’ve acquired, they usually’re nice, they’re improbable,” Tan mentioned.