I Really Don’t Want an AI Pot to Turn My Plant Into a Tamagotchi From Hell

Every few weeks Johnny Cash, Freddie Mercury and Jack Black all drink a glass of fertilized water at my house. By the way, they are all plants and they are all very thirsty.

My wife and I have filled our house with large plants, small plants, purple plants, white plants and also a few fluffy plants. With all of this in mind, I need you to understand that the LeafyPod from CES 2025 petrified me when I saw it. The idea of ​​this AI-powered flowerpot filled me with a fear akin to working at a pizza place during the Super Bowl.

Learn more: Some of the wild new products we saw at CES 2025

The LeafyPod is an AI-powered planter that can give a real voice to your plants through a mobile app so they can ask for more water, sunlight, and other things in order to stay healthy. This essentially turns your plant into a Tamagotchi.

Now imagine you have about 20 plants all in these pots, all telling you that they need more water. Suddenly they tell you they need more sun. Soon they will let you know that the temperature is a little cool for their liking. That’s up to 60 notifications, not to mention any future notifications you’ll receive. The thought of being inundated with these alerts makes me nauseous, and that’s only a fraction of the current plant collection in my home.

What if you don’t have enough of something to give your plant, like light? Some people don’t have clear south- or west-facing windows that can let in sunlight. With LeafyPod, there’s a voice attached to that plant, and it begs for more light like it’s a starving child. Imagine the plant begging you for something you can’t give it. I don’t even know about this plant and I feel horrible because of it.

These pots, which aim to help keep your plants alive, also have no way of telling you if your green, leafy friend is suffering from some sort of growth-stunting fungus or insect infestation . You may be able to spot fungi, but some insects are so small and devastating, like thrips, that you may watch your plant deteriorate before suspecting creepy crawlers.

Although technology can improve our lives, this pot seems to me to be an unnecessary nightmare compared to low-tech alternatives, mainly planters with self-watering pots and water gauges. These pots come with a water reservoir and a meter to tell you the water level. When the meter shows the tank is empty, you give the plant water. We have dozens of plants in self-watering pots and this makes caring for these plants easier.

As for light, we have lots of plants in open windows, but my wife also uses a Mother grow the light. The light is wide enough to cover a large portion of our plants, and it costs a bit more than one of those AI-powered pots.

And this might be sacrilege, but all of our plants are in ambient conditions – normal conditions found in any home. We do not use dehumidifiers/humidifiers and we do not have specialty cabinets. We just have plants in our house, out in the open, and they are doing well. I’m sure these AI-powered pots would tell us that certain plants need more humidity, but you wouldn’t guess it from the way these specimens grow.

The possibility of constant notifications from this one pot seems like a minor form of torture to me, and the inclusion of AI and expensive technology in this pot seems wrong when there are low-tech options that give you the same results.

If you’re considering this pot because you think you can’t take care of a plant: try a ZZ plant. Someone I know – who is definitely not me – didn’t water it or give it much light for a few months and it was fine.

For more from CES 2025, watch a robot vacuum pick up socks, here’s a bottle cap that can make sparkling water anywhere, and a smart ring that can detect your finger’s AFib.