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A lot of the AI stuff at CES 2026 this year is all about robot companions, always-listening note-taking devices, and even sleeping pills with an AI assistant that tells you when is the best time to take them. But one company, Xthings, showed something a bit less cuddly than all of that: the X Tower, a solar- and battery-powered public lamp that will use AI to tattle on layabouts and ne’er-do-wells.
The X Tower will be equipped with a 360-degree camera system, radar, and “video-language AI for real-time awareness.” The AI system can detect threats like ”loitering, illegal parking, aggression, armed threats, and anomalies,” according to briefing materials Gizmodo saw ahead of CES. Then it can send “instant alerts to command centers for fast intervention.”
Great stuff; I can’t wait for the technology that has proven time and time again to be a confident lie engine to decide whether my ice cream cone is a knife, and my offering it to my partner is an act of aggression. On the plus side, Xthings says the X Tower will serve as a public charging station. Which, according to the pictures, means it’s got a few MagSafe chargers. Sure, I’ll loiter around the narc pole while my phone slowly creeps its way up to 50 percent. What could go wrong?
Gizmodo is on the ground in Las Vegas all week bringing you everything you need to know about the tech unveiled at CES 2026. You can follow our CES live blog here and find all our coverage here.
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Source: Gizmodo