CES Worst In Show Awards Call Out the Tech Making Things Worse

Longtime Slashdot reader chicksdaddy writes: CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, isn't just about shiny new gadgets. As AP reports, this year brought back the fifth annual Worst in Show anti-awards, calling out the most harmful, wasteful, invasive, and unfixable tech at the Las Vegas show. The coalition behind the awards -- including Repair.org, iFixit, EFF, PIRG, Secure Repairs, and others -- put the spotlight on products that miss the point of innovation and make life worse for users.

2026 Worst in Show winners include:

Overall (and Repairability): Samsung's AI-packed Family Hub Fridge -- over-engineered, hard to fix, and trying to do everything but keep food cold.
Privacy: Amazon Ring AI -- expanding surveillance with features like facial recognition and mobile towers.
Security: Merach UltraTread treadmill -- an AI fitness coach that also hoovers up sensitive data with weak security guarantees, including a privacy policy that declares the company "cannot guarantee the security of your personal information" (!!).
Environmental Impact: Lollipop Star -- a single-use, music-playing electronic lollipop that epitomizes needless e-waste.
Enshittification: Bosch eBike Flow App -- pushing lock-in and digital restrictions that make gear worse over time.
"Who Asked For This?": Bosch Personal AI Barista -- a voice-assistant coffee maker that nobody really wanted.
People's Choice: Lepro Ami AI Companion -- an overhyped "soulmate" cam that creeps more than it comforts.

The message? Not all tech is progress. Some products add needless complexity, threaten privacy, or throw sustainability out the window -- and the industry's watchdogs are calling them out.

AI...AI...AI....AI....

[Vrallis]

How about all the keynote speakers who forgot this was the Consumer Electronics Show and just gave investor AI presentations?

None of us give a flying fuck about AI. If CES had balls they would just ban any AI mentions at the next show.

Re:

[martin-boundary]

I quite like the idea of the music playing lollipop. I might buy a few for some kids I know....

Re:

[tlhIngan]

I quite like the idea of the music playing lollipop. I might buy a few for some kids I know....

It's an interesting idea, just poor execution because after you've finished the lollipop after a few minutes, it's useless and you have to throw it away.

That's the problem - it's just guaranteed e-waste for a few minutes. It's single use nature is more offensive than single use plastics, and that's already pretty bad. It's like disposable vapes.

Re:

[martin-boundary]

Couldn't you replace the lolly yourself? It's pretty easy to make caramel at home, or candy. Tell the kids to bring the device back and pour candy onto the mouthpiece for the next day.

Lack of information....

[FrankSchwab]

I received one as a "gag" gift. The lollipop part was eminently forgettable, other than being oversize even for my adult sized mouth, and requiring you to keep it pushed against the roof of your mouth in order to hear anything which was uncomfortable. I suppose if I'd sucked on it for ten minutes, I might have eroded it to fit, but I wasn't that interested. The sound was remarkably good, though quiet, considering it was a lollipop.

Re:

[evil_aaronm]

Right, but time and place. At a show about consumer electronics, AI is largely missing the mark. My laundry machines and refrigerator are 25 years old, bereft of AI, and they work just fine. (True, the dryer's had to have a few parts replaced, but that's just wear and tear.) I'm keeping my home appliances free from AI as long as I can, because if you need artificial intelligence to dry your clothes, you have issues.

Sure, maybe some people actually want their fridge to tell them when they're low on mil

Re:

[Vrallis]

AI as it exists today has almost no relevance to the actual artificial intelligence we will likely see--eventually.

AI as it exists today is as if we just invited hot air balloons and everyone thinks we're rolling out 5th generation stealth fighters tomorrow and a warp drive next week.

Re:

[Vrallis]

Correction: Just invented...

Not Creepy

[djinn6]

I'll bet the AI companion will end up being one of the best selling among these. At least they provide some value for the buyer. The people who find it creepy (i.e. journalists, women) were never the target audience in the first place.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

The people who find it creepy (i.e. journalists, women) were never the target audience in the first place.

You forgot people with intelligence and/or self-respect, though they also were not the target audience.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

You're right, I should have added self-important assholes to the list.

Little people who will never amount to anything are exactly the people who will want a computer to stroke their... ego. Anyone who thinks an AI companion will provide "value" is a sad little person who cannot interact with actual humans, like the clown in the news whose AI girlfriend dumped him because he said he didn't like feminists. Talk about incel level one million.

Re: Not Creepy

[liqu1d]

Hey now let's not do that. I'm a little person who won't amount to anything. Still won't catch me buying one of those creepy things.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

You've at least amounted to a person with some discernment. Apparently it's in short supply.

Re:

[evil_aaronm]

This is being a bit harsh. We can interact with actual humans, but sometimes they're just fucking awful. Even your closest people can occasionally be dicks.

I'm not in the market for an AI companion, but I'm also not going to judge someone who feels better about things after unburdening themselves to an artificial "friend." Can you take it too far? Yeah, just like anything else.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

I'm also not going to judge someone who feels better about things after unburdening themselves to an artificial "friend."

The artificial friend is not a human, and pretending it is can only lead to more problems.

Re:

[arglebargle_xiv]

Particularly once someone hacks it so she's naked and touching herself.

Some sanity?

[Quakeulf]

Amongst all the insanity?

Red Dwarf was moking this idea long ago

[substance2003]

The Bosch Personal AI Barista. Just reading that line made me think of the AI toaster [youtube.com] in Red Dwarf and how annoying he was.

Re:

[Waccoon]

It's bad enough even without AI [youtube.com]

Merach UltraTread treadmill

[NaCh0]

The Merach treadmill should win an award for the most honest privacy policy.

If you think a privacy policy has an impact on actual privacy, you're not going to make it. Most of them are AI generated or copied straight from other websites.

Privacy policy pages are almost as bad as the cookie popups that europe wanted everyone to put on their websites. Nobody is reading them or following them.

Re:

[lucifuge31337]

Europe didn't "want" everyone to put cookie popups on thei web sites. They required a way to opt out. If you don't want cookie popups on your web site simply don't use tracking and you won't need any popups at all.

Steve Jobs endorses AI

[Yo,dog!]

Just kidding!
But Jensen Huang's keynote in DC on Oct. 28th last year, opens with AI Steve Jobs waxing eloquently about technological innovation and AI.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
https://singjupost.com/transcr... [singjupost.com]

if it isn't broke...

[Anonymous Coward]

it just doesn't have enough features yet!

What about that "DONUT" solid state battery?

[ffkom]

Given the sensational claims about this new wonder battery, it is either the best in show, or the worst (scam) in the show, not much other options. And since they chose to not allow for any independent test/reviews, I am inclined to assume it is a scam and therefore the worst in show.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

Given the sensational claims about this new wonder battery, it is either the best in show, or the worst (scam) in the show, not much other options. And since they chose to not allow for any independent test/reviews, I am inclined to assume it is a scam and therefore the worst in show.

Alas, scams are not worst in show. The CES worst in show is for stuff that makes absolutely no sense at all. Think lower than "engineers built it because they could, not because they should".

Or things worst than useless. Scams

Sound Bites

[Smidge204]

"Lollipop Star, a candy lollipop with built-in electronics that transmits sound through jaw vibrations"

Sound Bites [youtube.com] was an electronic toy that used a a normal lollipop that you could supply yourself to transmit sounds to the user via bone conduction. It was first marketed in 1998. It was reusable. It would have been trivial to recreate this.
=Smidge=

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Yes, can we please get rid of crap like this and also disposable e-cigarettes FFS?

Re:

[sound+vision]

I was confused - this is CES 2026? Someone must have been digging through old VHS tapes and spotted it in a commercial in the middle of an episode of Power Rangers.

It might be kids stuff from 30 years ago, but at least it's more interesting than AI.

Yuck

[RitchCraft]

Remember back in the 70s through the 90s how cool tech was? What the FUCK happened?

Re:Yuck

[evil_aaronm]

Low hanging fruit. Real innovation is harder, now. We used to be amazed by Tamagotchi's. That's done and cooked.

Re:

[roman_mir]

this was at the show: https://www.facebook.com/Robbo... [facebook.com]

Well

[Djdatlondon]

it certainly isn't making things better. I can't even see how any sane person would think it could. You know, Gimmicks come and go, But this has to be the biggest one yet I have witnessed in my 51 year stretch here on this planet. I really think the human race has basically lost the plot and is trying to become something it can never be. Whatever that is. Smoke and mirrors can hide the truth, But the wise will not be fooled. You are playing a dangerous game and when you lose, You better be ready.

Who asked for this?

[ddtmm]

How about Windows 11: Copilot, or Recall, force upgrades (due to TPM), or even Edge, or forced ads. From what I've seen here on /. there's not a whole lotta of love going on.

Is Bosch buying positive reviews

[NotEmmanuelGoldstein]

Other articles raved about the Bosch AI Barista but their lede omitted the fact the AI performed speech recognition. I assumed the AI enabled noobs to make the 'perfect' brew. Apparently, this Alexa+ version is worse than the original Alexa-powered espresso machine.

Bosch is a German company

[thegarbz]

Trust me, the Germans need all the help they can get AI or not when it comes to making coffee. Who asked for this? Every non-German who has ever visited Germany.

Attendence ?

[Voice of satan]

What was the attendance like ? Compared to other years ?

Re:

[Voice of satan]

I checked: Apparently rising steadily. Still not at its pre-pandemic levels.