From Gatebox to Project AVA

The idea of a desk companion with a pseudo-holographic character is not entirely new. Japan’s Gatebox has offered such a system since 2018, featuring virtual characters like Hatsune Miku displayed as a projected assistant designed for everyday interaction. Project AVA is Razer’s take on this concept, pushing it further as a fully integrated AI desk companion for life, work, and play. The cylindrical device combines microphones, a camera, RGB lighting, and a speaker with a 5.5-inch holographic display that renders animated 3D avatars with expressive, real-time motion. Connected via USB-C to a Windows PC, AVA can assist with daily organization, wellness routines, professional tasks, and gaming coaching, while remaining compliant with competitive gaming rules by acting strictly as a coach. Powered in its current form by xAI’s Grok engine and built on an open architecture, Project AVA is positioned as a future-ready AI companion, with availability planned for the second half of 2026. A final pop culture note: the name AVA inevitably recalls Ava, the AI character from „Ex Machina“, a film that has become a defining reference point for artificial intelligence embodied in human form. More details can be found at www.razer.com/concepts/project-ava.

Fig.: The original Gatebox (Photo: Katharina Kühne)

Einseitige Beziehungen

Am 3. Oktober 2022 ist auf der Website des österreichischen Standard der Artikel „Wie ‚Fiktosexuelle‘ Beziehungen mit virtuellen Figuren führen“ erschienen. In der gedruckten Ausgabe war er schon ein paar Tage vorher zu lesen. Im Teaser heißt es: „Es gibt Menschen, die tatsächlich Beziehungen mit Hologrammen, virtuellen Avataren und smarten Assistentinnen führen. Dennoch bleibt die Maschinenliebe eine Illusion …“. Zu Wort kommt mehrmals Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel, dessen Buch „Maschinenliebe“ über Liebespuppen, Sexroboter und virtuelle Figuren aller Art im Jahre 2020 herausgekommen ist. Mitgeschrieben haben einige der führenden Experten in diesem Bereich, u.a. Sophie Wennerscheid, Tanja Kubes, Melike Şahinol, Kate Devlin, Nicola Döring und Yuefang Zhou. Im Buch „AI Love You“ von Yuefang Zhou und Martin Fischer veröffentlichte Oliver Bendel auch den Beitrag „Hologram Girl“, der auf Beziehungen zu Hologrammen und Projektionen eingeht. Der Artikel im Standard kann hier abgerufen werden.

Abb.: Einseitige Beziehungen (Foto: Sara Zarubica)

The Hologram Girl Appears in the World

The article „Hologram Girl“ by Oliver Bendel deals first of all with the current and future technical possibilities of projecting three-dimensional human shapes into space or into vessels. Then examples for holograms from literature and film are mentioned, from the fictionality of past and present. Furthermore, the reality of the present and the future of holograms is included, i.e. what technicians and scientists all over the world are trying to achieve, in eager efforts to close the enormous gap between the imagined and the actual. A very specific aspect is of interest here, namely the idea that holograms serve us as objects of desire, that they step alongside love dolls and sex robots and support us in some way. Different aspects of fictional and real holograms are analyzed, namely pictoriality, corporeality, motion, size, beauty and speech capacity. There are indications that three-dimensional human shapes could be considered as partners, albeit in a very specific sense. The genuine advantages and disadvantages need to be investigated further, and a theory of holograms in love could be developed. The article is part of the book „AI Love You“ by Yuefang Zhou and Martin H. Fischer and was published on 18 July 2019. Further information can be found via link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-19734-6.

Fig.: Hatsune Miku is a fully artificial figure