The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is currently taking place in Las Vegas, and Sony’s car which you can control with a PS5 DualSense controller is no longer the wackiest thing on display. It’s now, probably, this creepy AI Mario.
UPDATE: Following the publication of this story, Proto Inc. issued the following statement:
The AI hologram animation briefly seen today is an unfinished proof of concept tested for a client to demonstrate technological capabilities and innovation. It is not intended for commercial release. AARP and Nintendo were not involved in the inadvertent showing today.
Our original story follows.
This strange Mario hologram booth was seemingly conjured by the unexpected trifecta of AI, AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons), and Target. We first heard about this strange lifeform through Twitter user Greggory, from the show.
Upon first glance, one might notice that he looks a bit off. That’s perhaps because of his stiff posture, but the things granting him the status of nuclear-grade nightmare fuel are his voice and facial animations. He sounds like he’s audibly searching for an attempt at an Italian accent.
Perhaps he’s not even the real Mario, but rather the Mario that the creepy version of Luigi from Mario is missing! Is looking for.
You could even theorize that this a ploy by Nintendo to have Mario fans admit that things could be worse, now that Charles Martinet is out, though it’s a fair question as to whether Nintendo knows about this at all.
So what hole did this Mario crawl out of?
As Kotaku found out, AARP came up with AgeTech, a tech comprising various companies that aims at meeting the needs of “the world’s aging population”, which OG Mario fans apparently are now. One of the companies involved seems to be Proto Hologram, a maker of holographic boxes where you can imprison the mascot of your choice and have it sell stuff. In this case, however, it seems like they’re using it to “help combat loneliness and improve telehealth”.
That baffles me because, well, at best this thing will solve the problem of loneliness by making old people enjoy being alone more than they would the alternative of being accompanied by creepy AI-powered mascots.
We still haven’t heard from Nintendo on this issue, but it’s highly unlikely that AARP is illegally making use of Nintendo’s mascot. Right?
As for Greggory, the last time we heard of him, he was tweeting about how he would revisit this abomination today.
That was over three hours ago now, so I’m just going to have to assume the worst. Thank you for your service, Greggory.
