CES is in full swing, and Mario was there in holographic AI form to give folks at the AARP booth advice on how to eat healthy. I wish I was joking.
Footage of this AI-powered Mario hit the internet courtesy of Twitter user ProbChild, and pretty quickly captured the internet's collective nightmares. It's a combination of life-sized holographic display, AI chatbot, and awkwardly animated Mario facsimile. Just ask Mario a question and this… thing will answer with generic advice straight out of a ChatGPT prompt.
What's with these animations? What's with this voice? It looks like Mario is recovering from shoulder surgery and being forced to lip-sync along with a deep-voiced Italian man who has never once considered the possibility of eating a magic mushroom. It's so weird and off-model that I can't imagine Nintendo has signed off on any of this.
So Mario was at #CES But uh… who approved this abomination? 💀 pic.twitter.com/diG3axCJIGJanuary 10, 2024
It only gets weirder the more you look at it. This thing was at the AARP booth - yes, as in the American Association of Retired Persons - and it features a Target logo in the bottom corner. ProbChild reports being told by an AARP rep to ask Mario how to buy a game, and the AI plumber strongly recommends checking in at Target to find the title you're looking for.
This all seems to tie into AARP's AgeTech Collaborative, a group of tech outfits with a website full of phrases like "accelerating innovation." Basically, it seems to be a networking initiative for tech startups whose products might benefit older folks to show their wares and connect with investors. This Mario is being displayed on a holographic display platform called Proto, though there's no clear indication of who's providing the AI and animation. (Again, though, it's a safe bet that it's not Nintendo.)
All I really know is that this is all profoundly upsetting and I might just have found the one instance where I would appreciate Nintendo vigorously defending its IP from derivative works.
Valve's new Steam policy will allow the "vast majority" of AI games to release.
