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Decoder with Nilay Patel

Razer CEO on AI in game dev, Grok, and anime waifus

Decoder with Nilay Patel

Vox Media Podcast Network

Business, Technology

4.23.4K Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2026

⏱️ 64 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We’re back to start the year with a very special live interview with Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan, which we taped in front of a terrific audience at Brooklyn Bowl in Las Vegas during CES. At this year’s show, Razer made headlines for something it calls Project Ava, an AI companion that has a physical presence in the real world, as an anime hologram that sits in a jar on your desk. It’s powered by, you guessed it, Elon Musk’s Grok.  There are a whole lot of choices bundled up in all of that, as well as Razer’s decision to go all-in on AI at a moment when the gaming community is outright rejecting it. So Min and I really got into it. I think you’ll have a lot to think about with this one.  Links:  Razer is making an AI anime waifu hologram for your desk | The Verge Razer thinks you’d rather have AI headphones instead of glasses | The Verge Baldur’s Gate 3 studio says it won’t use AI for concept art or writing | The Verge In 2025, AI became a lightning rod for gamers and devs | The Verge Razer plans $600M push to capture 'untapped' AI gaming demand | Bloomberg Replika CEO says it’s okay if we end up marrying AI chatbots | Decoder Lawsuits blame ChatGPT for suicides and harmful delusions | NYT Inside three longterm relationships with AI chatbots | NYT Torment Nexus | Know Your Meme The future of gaming is AI | Razer (Instagram) Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder! Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:56.3

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1:06.0

Hello and welcome to Decoder.

1:07.4

I'm Nelai Patel, editor-in-chief of The Verge,

1:08.9

and Decoder is my show about big ideas and other problems.

1:12.4

We're back to start the year off with a very special live interview with Razor CEO Min Liang Tan,

1:18.5

which we taped in front of a terrific audience at Brooklyn Bowl in Vegas at CES.

1:23.7

Now, Razor is obviously best known for making mice and keyboards and gaming PCs and its signature black and bright green,

1:29.3

with a smattering of RGB LEDs to set everything off.

1:33.3

But the company always makes splashy announcements at CES, and this year was no different, and along with the hype, there was plenty of controversy.

1:41.3

This year at CES, Razor those splashy headlines and not a little

1:45.2

controversy for something that calls Project Ava, an AI companion that has a physical presence

1:50.8

in the real world. It's an anime hologram that sits in a jar on your desk. Eva is powered by,

1:57.2

you guessed it, Elon Musk's Grock. There's a lot of choices bundled up in all of that,

2:02.5

and Razor can't really fall back on the It's Just a Prototype Defense,

2:06.1

because it's taking $20 reservations

...

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