Not too long ago, reporter Miyosato met a guy named Mike.

So Mike is suspended in a tube, in a clear tube.

He is wearing a hot pink suit and has like bleach blonde cropped hair.

And there's a microphone outside of Mike's tube where people can step up and talk to Mike.

Okay.

So Mike is not actually a person.

Mike is a hologram.

And he has this huge sign above him that says, talk to me.

Mia, who's a reporter for The Verge, met Mike at the National Retail Federation's big

annual conference last month, where the retail industry goes to talk about the future of selling

stuff.

The idea is that all these attendees can go up to this mic, this microphone, and talk to Mike

and ask him, like, questions.

Because, surprise, surprise, the retail industry is betting big on AI.

It's powered by ChatGTPT, and it's kind of like a human-ish representation of a chatbot.

The idea for Mike is that he would be placed maybe in a store,

and it would be a way to lure potential customers in.

Not even that he would sell anything,

but that he would be used as like a touchpoint for shoppers or customers that would kind of make

them curious about what was going on and engage with the brand that deployed Mike or someone

or something like Mike. What did people think of him? I hesitate to even call him a him,

it. It, it, it, for sure. It was like definitely one of the

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