The 2025 Consumer Electronics Show has been overrun by...robots?

CES 2025 has officially begun.

What's CES, you ask?

Well, the Consumer Electronics Show is an annual event showcasing the world’s newest and most innovative consumer electronic products.

It’s one of the biggest events of the year, providing the ultimate platform for tech leaders to connect, collaborate and show off their shiny new toys.

However, this year, CES feels less like a tech showcase and more like a casting call for Westworld.

Amid the sea of shiny gadgets, Samsung’s announcement of its Ballie AI robot ready for release in 2025 has stolen the spotlight.

A small, admittedly very cute, spherical “personal companion,” Ballie promises to roll into your life and solve problems you didn’t know you had.

It’s a nice concept—but it’s also part of a much larger, and slightly dystopian, trend: our society’s increasing fascination with robots.

So why are robots—from Tesla’s humanoid Optimus to Samsung’s Ballie—dominating the tech world’s imagination? And what does this cultural obsession say about us?

CES 2025 is swarming with robots promising to change our lives.

Caregiving bots that assist the elderly. Cooking robots that claim to whip up Michelin-star meals. Autonomous cleaning robots so advanced, they make your Roomba look like a wind-up toy.

It’s an impressive array, but it's also kind of overwhelming.

Do we really need robots to help us fold laundry, or are these just the tech industry’s latest toys disguised as necessities?

Take Samsung’s Ballie, for example. It’s marketed as a personal assistant, companion, and problem-solver all rolled into one (literally).

It’ll follow you around your home, remind you to take your meds, or snap a photo of your dog doing something adorable. But is Ballie really about to revolutionise our lives, or is it just a very cute surveillance camera on wheels?

These are the questions WE NEED ANSWERS FOR.

And by ‘we,’ I mean me. Because this sh*t is giving creepy, not cute.

So, why are robots having more of a moment than Timmy Chalamet on his press run for the Bob Dylan biopic?

Surely it can’t all be about innovation.

No, it’s also about us.

These robots are the perfect mirror for society’s hopes, fears, and flaws. Here’s what I assume is driving the obsession:

Pandemic aftermath.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated our reliance on automation, from delivery drones to AI customer service. Robots feel like a natural next step in this automation evolution.

Emotional connection.

Samsung’s Ballie isn’t just a gadget; it’s marketed as a “personal companion.” That’s not just clever branding—it’s a reflection of desire for connection in an increasingly isolated world.

Dystopian chic.

Let’s face it, we’re suckers for a good dystopia narrative. From Black Mirror to Ex Machina, pop culture has primed us to be both intrigued and terrified by robots. CES is simply capitalising on that intrigue.

Convenience.

The promise of robots often boils down to one thing: doing the work we don’t want to do. Cooking, cleaning, caregiving—tasks that are time-consuming, labour-intensive, or emotionally draining can be outsourced to machines. But at what cost?

Samsung’s Ballie is no mere product; it’s a statement.

It’s part of a larger narrative where tech companies promise to make life easier, better, and more connected. But does it deliver on that promise?

Consider the practicalities. Sure, Ballie can remind you of appointments or entertain your pets, but it’s also a rolling data-gathering device. Every interaction feeds back to its AI, potentially raising privacy concerns.

And while it’s cute, it’s also niche. How many consumers are genuinely clamouring for a ball-shaped robot?

What Ballie really represents is a bridge between function and fantasy. It’s not just about what robots can do—it’s about what we want them to do. Ballie’s real appeal isn’t its features; it’s the idea of a helpful little friend in your home, fulfilling our tech-fuelled dreams of a robot-assisted future.

But as robots infiltrate more areas of our lives, the ethical questions grow louder.

Like WHAT THE ACTUAL F*** IS GOING ON HERE? Kidding. Kind of.

We know automation can lead to job displacement, especially in industries like manufacturing and service. And then there’s the question of surveillance—how much of our lives are we willing to hand over to machines in the name of convenience?

Even the concept of a “personal companion” robot raises eyebrows to say the least (yikes). You thought it. I thought it. We all thought it.

Are we outsourcing emotional (and other various) labour to machines? If we rely on robots to meet our social and emotional needs, what happens to human relationships?

While these questions seem to have been answered in film once upon a time, the reality of anything like this ever happening seemed almost unbelievable.

Now that we have reached that reality, maybe it’s time to exercise some caution.

Is this the future we want, or the one we’re being sold?

CES 2025 shows us a world where robots aren’t just tools. They’re characters in the story of our future, and this robot renaissance is crafting that narrative.

Samsung’s Ballie is adorable, and Tesla’s Optimus is impressive. But they’re also a reflection of our collective hopes, fears, and sometimes misplaced priorities.

So, are robots the future we’re racing toward? Or are they solving problems that didn’t really exist?

As CES continues to churn out new iterations of our robot dreams, it’s worth asking whether we're building a better world, or just a shinier, colder, potentially scarier one?

-Sophie, Writer