Razer's AI Waifu Project Ava: What's the Deal?

PC and peripherals maker Razer believes that somebody, somewhere, is desperate to put an anime cat girl on their desk, like their personal imprisoned Tinkerbell who’s forced to compliment them on command. The company’s Project Ava includes either a female waifu or male husbando hologram housed inside a glass jar that uses conversational AI to talk to users. The thing is, Razer doesn’t know when it will be out, or—apparently—much else about this device it promises will be an actual product. We went hands-on with Project Ava during CES 2026. It’s stuffed with technology we’ve seen before—namely, an animated avatar and AI chatbot that’s meant to act as a player’s gaming mentor and desktop companion. Razer is mostly known for its PC gaming laptops, mice, and headsets, but it often goes to CES with a fair few concept devices in tow; hence Ava’s “Project” nomenclature. In this case, Razer swore to consumers that Project Ava and its other AI gadget—a pair of headphones with cameras and AI visual capabilities called Project Motoko—would become real products… eventually. During an interview on The Verge’s Decoder podcast, Razer’s co-founder and CEO, Min-Liang Tan, couldn’t offer many specifics about what’s going on with its waifu in a jar, nor much about how people can buy it. Project Ava is currently open for “reservations” that cost $20. Those reservations will eventually become preorders with a promised, though vague, release date in the second half of 2026. At the same time, Tan said they were still getting feedback and “hear[ing] what the concerns are.” And there certainly are concerns, considering we’ve yet to see an AI-centric gadget accomplish anything our existing products couldn’t already do. Can you actually buy Project Ava? What’s more, Razer hasn’t settled on what’s actually going on inside its AI companion device. Tan said, “We have not disclosed the actual specs of the product, and not even, for example, which character models, or even which model it’s gonna be running at this point in time. We’re leaving that absolutely open.” Razer previously told Gizmodo it was working with esports stars to potentially stick their mugs and voices in the jar. Hopefully, it’s comfortable with the new parasocial relationships consumers will naturally create with their likeness. Tan also told The Verge’s Nilay Patel, “So what we have actually said is that these are reservations. They’re not pre-orders, per se. So, ultimately, when we do launch the product, and it could be a long way out, by then, because of the specs.” In an email statement to Gizmodo, Razer said, “The $20 reservation for Project Ava is a refundable deposit towards the final purchase price of the product. We will have more information on pre-orders for Project Ava in the future and look forward to sharing more information soon.” Essentially, the reservation is a preorder for a preorder. It sets you up in line to get a Project Ava (knowing that’s definitely not the final name) with the hope that you’ll actually want it once the company reveals what’s actually going on inside. On its product page, Razer promises you can cancel the reservation and ask for a refund. The company further implied that Project Ava may be in hot demand, and only those who get in line first can hope to get their waifu shipped to their door at some vague future date. Razer’s CEO doesn’t see the problem with Elon Musk’s Grok Project Ava, as an AI chatbot companion, was already a concept Razer had shown off before. The attached waifu hologram is merely a facade for what we’ve experienced before from the likes of Microsoft. The “Gaming Copilot” is still in beta, and it’s currently terrible at what it’s supposed to do. In some cases, Copilot doesn’t even know a game’s controls, even though they were published by Microsoft’s Xbox brand. In my short time with Project Ava, the waifu AI wouldn’t offer me any solid advice on how to manage recoil in a game like Battlefield 6. Mind you, the demo Razer set us up with was the game’s target practice mode that is all about aiming. Razer was reluctant to tell us exactly what was happening inside the glass jar, beyond the fact that it was using Elon Musk’s brainchild, Grok, as its centerpiece AI model. We also thought that was a strange choice. When pressed, Razer told Gizmodo that Grok had the best conversational model that helped it sound more human-like. Never mind that Grok is at the center of numerous controversies on X (formerly Twitter), where the chatbot was willing to talk openly about “MechaHitler” and share nonconsensual sexual images. The reason why Grok seems more conversational is because it’s designed with “tone” in mind and fewer guardrails—or, more specifically, made to parrot Musk’s increasingly nativist worldview. “My focus to date has been more in terms of what’s the best conversational model that we’ve got, and they’re great, they’re fantastic,” Tan said.