CES 2020 Was Basically An Unending Parade Of Kitchen Robots

PhonlamaiPhoto/iStock
By  Allison Robicelli

Last week, the world's top technology companies gathered in Las Vegas to show off the newest achievements in tech's unending quest to make humans obsolete improve our daily lives. There are many incredible advancements in food prep technology to get excited about, like these gangly robot arms that can squeeze out dollops of sriracha and are not meant for squeezing the life out of their human oppressors:

Over at the LG booth robots were operating a full restaurant, handling all front and back of house operations. CNET reports that the lone human working the restaurant emphasized "he was better able to focus on his customers" now that the robots were firmly in charge of things.

GE debuted the next generation of its Kitchen Hub interactive smart kitchen and ventilation system. According to a press release, the new Kitchen Hub comes with a built-in microwave and a camera inside the oven with AI-integrated cooking technology that will "help the home chef select a recipe based on available ingredients detected by a camera, assist in detection of doneness of food items, raise or lower oven temperature and note any missing ingredients." The emphasis on this appliance's many, many cameras might be unnerving to some.

The Kitchen Hub also features a camera function that allows you to watch your food cooking from your phone, a live video chat function with multiple camera angles, and an overhead cooktop-facing camera with lighting "to make it easier than ever to share the latest culinary masterpiece on social media." But the big question at CES was not "Will the presence of dozens of cameras inside my kitchen put me at a disadvantage when the singularity occurs?" Instead, it seemed to be, "Will the new Kitchen Hub allow me to watch Netflix on my microwave?" And the answer to the latter is yes.

Recommended