Computex 2025 – When the AI craze eats every last USB cable

Welcome to the Artificially Inflated Computex 2025, a place where everything seems to revolve around just two letters: AI. The exhibition halls in Taipei currently resemble a theater stage for the ultimate over-staging of a buzzword that has now thrown all logic overboard. What used to begin with sober technological progress is now one big buzzword bingo – including glossy panels, LED walls, avatars suitable for cosplay and keynotes with prophetic expressions.

Anything that doesn’t start with “AI” at least ends with it. “AI Memory”, “AI Infrastructure”, “Next-Level AI PC”, “AI Ready BIOS Update”, “AI Fan Control”, “AI Keyboard Tuning” – yes, even the hall’s cleaning team would probably have been given the label of autonomous AI wiping if only they had dared. The term “artificial intelligence” is no longer used in a differentiated way here, but is used inflationarily like glitter in an influencer’s face: the main thing is that it shines, regardless of whether it fits.

What is an AI PC? A water cooling system with neuronal ambitions? A motherboard that recognizes my emotional state when the BIOS is shot? Or just a normal gaming PC with an RTX 5070 that now “intelligently optimizes” the thermal state of my RGB lighting thanks to three lines of Python in the background?

ASUS is not letting itself down either: “Ubiquitous AI” is emblazoned across the stand like a revelation. That’s about as specific as writing “Ubiquitous Existence” on a toaster. Behind it: Large screens with semi-transparent, pseudo-scientific animated cell models that are meant to suggest that people are probably working on the solution to ageing here. Spoiler: They also continue to manufacture notebooks and routers.

And Supermicro? They at least make no secret of the fact that they are primarily concerned with data centers and servers – but here, too, every edge device becomes an “AI-optimized node”, as if a small script block can turn the global energy balance into a positive one.

XPG, on the other hand, relies on a different AI concept: Anime Intelligence. The larger-than-life, busty hologram lady at the stand doesn’t explain anything to me about memory latency, but at least she smiles as she points to a fictitious cyberpunk skyscraper with glowing eyes. Presumably the new headquarters of OpenAI.

And anyone who thinks that at least in the DIY and enthusiast sector, such as at ASRock or Keychron, you are safe from the AI plague will be proven wrong. Here too, there are now AI-controlled BIOS flashing tools, AI-optimized overclocking profiles and AI keyboard macros that automatically detect whether you are typing a game or your divorce papers.

Anyone who shows up in Taipei in 2025 with a product that doesn’t have the word “AI” in the title, subtitle or packaging at least once apparently risks immediate demotion to the status of industry fossil. But don’t worry: there will soon be an AI-supported rebranding tool for this too.

And until then? AI you later.