I pitted an AI robot massage against the real thing
'It'll do a couple onboarding things,'' she said, 'and then you're good to go.''
Onboarding? Was this a new-hire orientation or a hotel-spa appointment?
I had signed up for a new robot massage at the W Scottsdale. The 241-room hotel in the city's downtown entertainment district recently added Aescape, an AI-powered machine touted as the next generation of massage.
Robots aren't new to hotels. You've probably seen them cleaning, delivering room service or gliding through the lobby.
Now they're coming for the spa. Aescape (the A is silent) has massage tables at a handful of hotels, including the Four Seasons Resort Orlando in Florida and the Ritz-Carlton Bacara in Santa Barbara, Calif. They are also popping up in other cities at fitness centers and day spas.
There are no deepfake concerns with AI massages. You can see the massage table and the giant white arms with fat paws ready to pound your back.
The question for spa guests: How does the robot compare to a professional spa massage therapist and is the value there?
That's where your trusty travel columnist comes in. I tried both at the same W Hotel Away spa, 24 hours apart. The Aescape massage, 60 minutes, was $120. My 50-minute de-stress massage was $190, $228 with service charge.
Both did the trick in their own ways. But let's just say Erik, my real massage therapist, doesn't have to worry about job security.
Maybe you've plopped into one of those Sharper Image massage recliners or high-tech massage chairs at an airport lounge or mall. Get those images out of your head.
The Aescape robot massage at the W was set up like a traditional spa appointment. There was a treatment room, table and background music. Except there's no massage therapist and you disrobe not to your undies but the tight-fitting loungewear Aescape provides.
The company says it's designed to limit things getting bunched up during the automated massage. It also helps the robot read your body during body scans. (Mine told me my left foot was out of position at one point.)
Customers start the massage face down on a wide massage table, peering through the traditional face pillow to an iPad-like screen below.
'Welcome, Dawn," mine said, and noted I was there for the 60-minute total back, glutes and hamstring massage.
The device is the massage control center. It's where you adjust the pressure, pick the music, move on from a particular body part and heart any robot move you particularly like.
I found this all pretty distracting. But that's probably because it was my first time and I was taking mental and voice notes for this column. (The company says there's a way to set it and forget it and simply enjoy the massage. It's called immerse mode.)
I'll admit to taking a few deep breaths during the first minutes the robot was pressing deep into my back. Yes, I was thinking about the online comments from naysayers who feared getting crushed. The worries went away after I reduced the pressure level.
The robot can't reach two areas that are most enjoyable for me, the head and neck. And, in this particular case, I had a wicked stiff neck that needed attention.
So I was more than done with the back section 30 minutes in when the robot turned to my sore glutes and hamstrings. (You don't turn over on these massages, either; the entire time is spent face down.)
The glutes-and-hamstring section was the best part of the massage. A bonus: I rocked out to AC/DC's 'Thunderstruck" as the robot worked out the kinks.
You don't find that soundtrack diversity during traditional spa massages. I even turned up the pressure past the halfway mark.
When it was done, I wouldn't say I was in that dreamy, postmassage haze—but I was more relaxed. Another plus: My hair wasn't a greasy mess and I didn't have to shower off any oils or lotions. I didn't even have to check out because it was prepaid through Aescape.
Given the areas it doesn't reach, though, 60 minutes was too long for me, even on the company dime. And I don't think the value proposition is there, either. (Two young guests checking out spa treatments that same day asked if the robot massage was free!)
An Aescape spokeswoman says the price includes extras like access to the hotel's popular pool.
David Cronin, general manager of the W Scottsdale, said a comparison between traditional massages and a robot massage misses the point. The robot massage isn't designed to replace humans, he says.
They are for people who maybe don't want the personal touch of a massage therapist or just need a 30-minute recovery after a hard workout. The shorter massages have been popular, he says, with guests and locals. He's a cyclist and says that's the sweet spot.
For an extra 70 bucks plus tip, I'll take all the extras that came with my traditional massage. That one started with robe, slippers and a hand-delivered elixir made with three juices, spearmint tea and prickly pear syrup while I waited for my appointment.
The biggest extra, of course: Erik. The hulking message therapist has worked at the W for three years. He won me over as soon as the clock started in treatment-room six.
His hands and elbows dug into everything that hurt ('It's going to feel worse before it feels better,'' he warned early on) and the head and foot massages were the treats they always are.
I was just a few doors down from the robot's home at the hotel, but miles away, mentally and physically.
When time was up, Erik was waiting outside my door with a glass of cold water. The robot only asked me to rate the massage (4 out of 5) and simply told me to remove my belongings from the table to make way for the next guest.
Write to Dawn Gilbertson at dawn.gilbertson@wsj.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New Indian Express
13 hours ago
- New Indian Express
How Russia reins in the internet by blocking websites and isolating it from the rest of the world
Censorship after 2011-12 protests Kremlin efforts to control what Russians do, read or say online dates to 2011-12, when the internet was used to challenge authority. Independent media outlets bloomed, and anti-government demonstrations that were coordinated online erupted after disputed parliamentary elections and Putin's decision to run again for president. Russia began adopting regulations tightening internet controls. Some blocked websites; others required providers to store call records and messages, sharing it with security services if needed, and install equipment allowing authorities to control and cut off traffic. Companies like Google or Facebook were pressured to store user data on Russian servers, to no avail, and plans were announced for a 'sovereign internet' that could be cut off from the rest of the world. Russia's popular Facebook-like social media platform VK, founded by Pavel Durov long before he launched the Telegram messenger, came under the control of Kremlin-friendly companies. Russia tried to block Telegram between 2018-20 but failed. Prosecutions for social media posts and comments became common, showing that authorities were closely watching the online space. Still, experts had dismissed Kremlin efforts to rein in the internet as futile, arguing Russia was far from building something akin to China's 'Great Firewall,' which Beijing uses to block foreign websites. Ukraine invasion triggers crackdown After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the government blocked major social media like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, as well as Signal and a few other messaging apps. VPNs also were targeted, making it harder to reach restricted websites. YouTube access was disrupted last summer in what experts called deliberate throttling by authorities. The Kremlin blamed YouTube owner Google for not maintaining its hardware in Russia. The platform has been wildly popular in Russia, both for entertainment and for voices critical of the Kremlin, like the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Cloudflare, an internet infrastructure provider, said in June that websites using its services were being throttled in Russia. Independent news site Mediazona reported that several other popular Western hosting providers also are being inhibited. Cyber lawyer Sarkis Darbinyan, founder of Russian internet freedom group Roskomsvoboda, said authorities have been trying to push businesses to migrate to Russian hosting providers that can be controlled. He estimates about half of all Russian websites are powered by foreign hosting and infrastructure providers, many offering better quality and price than domestic equivalents. A 'huge number' of global websites and platforms use those providers, he said, so cutting them off means those websites 'automatically become inaccessible' in Russia too. Another concerning trend is the consolidation of Russia's internet providers and companies that manage IP addresses, according to a July 30 Human Rights Watch report. Last year, authorities raised the cost of obtaining an internet provider license from 7,500 rubles (about $90) to 1 million rubles (over $12,300), and state data shows that more than half of all IP addresses in Russia are managed by seven large companies, with Rostelecom, Russia's state telephone and internet giant, accounting for 25%. The Kremlin is striving 'to control the internet space in Russia, and to censor things, to manipulate the traffic,' said HRW's Kruope.
Time of India
a day ago
- Time of India
Apple CEO Tim Cook tells staff AI is ‘ours to grab' in hourlong pep talk
Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook , holding a rare all-hands meeting following earnings results, rallied employees around the company's artificial intelligence prospects and an 'amazing' pipeline of products. The executive gathered staff at Apple's on-campus auditorium Friday in Cupertino, California, telling them that the AI revolution is 'as big or bigger' as the internet, smartphones, cloud computing and apps. 'Apple must do this. Apple will do this. This is sort of ours to grab,' Cook told employees, according to people aware of the meeting. 'We will make the investment to do it.' The iPhone maker has been late to AI, debuting Apple Intelligence months after OpenAI, Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Microsoft Corp. and others flooded the market with products like ChatGPT. And when Apple finally released its AI tools, they fell flat. But Cook struck an optimistic tone, noting that Apple is typically late to promising new technologies. 'We've rarely been first,' the executive told staffers. 'There was a PC before the Mac; there was a smartphone before the iPhone; there were many tablets before the iPad; there was an MP3 player before iPod.' But Apple invented the 'modern' versions of those product categories, he said. 'This is how I feel about AI.' An Apple spokesperson declined to comment on the gathering. The hourlong meeting addressed a range of topics, including the retirement of operating chief Jeff Williams, increasing Apple TV+ viewership and advances in health care with features like the AirPods Pro hearing-aid technology. It also touched on donations and community service by Apple employees, the company's goal to become carbon neutral by 2030, and the impact of regulations. 'The reality is that Big Tech is under a lot of scrutiny around the world,' Cook said. 'We need to continue to push on the intention of the regulation and get them to offer that up, instead of these things that destroy the user experience and user privacy and security.' Cook often holds town hall-style chats when visiting Apple's offices around the world, but companywide meetings from the Steve Jobs Theater at headquarters are unusual. The remarks followed a blockbuster earnings report, with sales growing nearly 10% during the June quarter. That beat Wall Street expectations and eased concerns about iPhone demand and a slowdown in China. Apple still faces myriad challenges, including Trump administration tariffs and a regulatory crackdown on its business practices. The company said Thursday that tariffs would bring a $1.1 billion headwind this quarter, though Apple was upbeat about sales growth. It also said that App Store revenue rose by a percentage in the double digits last quarter, despite efforts in the EU and elsewhere to further restrict that business. Echoing comments he made during the earnings conference call, Cook told employees the company is investing in AI in a 'big way.' He said 12,000 workers were hired in the last year, with 40% of the new hires joining in research and development roles. Apple's chip development efforts, led by executive Johny Srouji, are key to the company's AI strategy, Cook said. Apple is working on a more powerful cloud-computing chip — code-named Baltra — to power artificial intelligence features, Bloomberg News has reported. It's also setting up a new AI server manufacturing facility in Houston. The meeting included Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering, who discussed the future of Apple's Siri voice assistant. The company had planned to roll out a Siri overhaul as part of Apple Intelligence earlier this year, adding the ability to tap into user data to better fulfill requests. It was delayed, spurring management changes for the company's AI work. Federighi explained that the problem was caused by trying to roll out a version of Siri that merged two different systems: one for handling current commands — like setting timers — and another based on large language models, the software behind generative AI. 'We initially wanted to do a hybrid architecture, but we realized that approach wasn't going to get us to Apple quality,' Federighi said. Now, Apple is working on a version of Siri that moves to an entirely new architecture for all of its capabilities. That iteration is slated for as early as spring, Bloomberg News has reported, though Apple executives haven't confirmed a timeline other than a release next year. 'The work we've done on this end-to-end revamp of Siri has given us the results we needed,' the engineering executive told employees. 'This has put us in a position to not just deliver what we announced, but to deliver a much bigger upgrade than we envisioned. There is no project people are taking more seriously.' Federighi cited leadership changes, including putting Vision Pro creator Mike Rockwell and his headset software leadership team in charge of Siri, as a driving force in improving the product. He said Rockwell and his group have 'supercharged' the company's work in the area. In his speech, Cook also pushed employees to move more quickly to weave AI into their work and future products. 'All of us are using AI in a significant way already, and we must use it as a company as well,' Cook said. 'To not do so would be to be left behind, and we can't do that.' Employees should push to deploy AI tools faster, and urge their managers and service and support teams to do the same, he said. Cook also addressed the company's retail strategy, stressing that the current plan is to focus on opening new stores in emerging markets and upping the investment in Apple's online store. The iPhone maker is opening outlets in India, the United Arab Emirates and China this year, and is preparing to add its first location in Saudi Arabia next year. 'We need to be in more countries, and you'll see us go into more emerging markets in particular,' Cook said. That doesn't mean Apple will ignore other places, he said, but a 'disproportionate amount of growth' will be in new areas. The CEO also shared his enthusiasm about upcoming products, though he didn't get specific. 'I have never felt so much excitement and so much energy before as right now,' he said. Bloomberg News has previously reported that Apple plans to launch its first foldable iPhone next year and is also working on a stream of smart home devices. New headset products, smart glasses, a push into robotics and a redesigned iPhone for the two-decade anniversary are also underway. 'The product pipeline, which I can't talk about: It's amazing, guys. It's amazing,' Cook said. 'Some of it you'll see soon, some of it will come later, but there's a lot to see.'
Time of India
a day ago
- Time of India
Apple forms new "Answers" team to build ChatGPT rival, after CEO Tim Cook says company 'rarely been…"
Apple has quietly established a new internal team called "Answers, Knowledge and Information" (AKI) that is developing a ChatGPT-like search experience, according to Bloomberg. The team is building what it calls an "answer engine" capable of crawling the web to respond to general-knowledge questions, potentially offering Apple's first serious challenge to existing AI chatbots. When Apple introduced its AI platform last year, executives made clear there wouldn't be an in-house chatbot, instead partnering with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into Siri. Since then, Apple's software and marketing leaders have argued that consumer interest in chatbots is limited, with some AI group leaders expressing skepticism about ChatGPT-style tools altogether, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. However, the reality that these products serve hundreds of millions globally for tasks ranging from math and spreadsheets to simple search has apparently prompted the company's change of direction. The AKI team, led by senior director Robby Walker under AI chief John Giannandrea, is exploring both a standalone app and new backend infrastructure to power search capabilities in future versions of Siri, Spotlight, and Safari. Apple has begun advertising job openings specifically seeking candidates with experience in search algorithms and engine development. Apple CEO Tim Cook rallies employees around AI investment strategy At a rare all-hands meeting last week, CEO Tim Cook told employees that Apple "must do this" and "will make the investment to do it," calling the AI revolution "as big or bigger" than the internet, smartphones, and cloud computing. Cook acknowledged Apple's typical approach of entering markets later but creating defining products, telling staff: "We've rarely been first. There was a PC before the Mac; there was a smartphone before the iPhone... This is how I feel about AI." The move comes as Apple faces pressure on multiple fronts. The company's $20 billion annual deal with Google for default search could be disrupted by antitrust action, while Apple Intelligence currently lacks the conversational search capabilities available from ChatGPT or Google's Gemini. Software heads details Siri overhaul delay Software chief Craig Federighi addressed the company's delayed Siri upgrade during the meeting, explaining that Apple initially planned a "hybrid architecture" combining current Siri capabilities with large language models. "We realized that approach wasn't going to get us to Apple quality," Federighi said, according to Bloomberg. Instead, Apple is now developing an entirely new architecture for all of Siri's capabilities, with Vision Pro creator Mike Rockwell and his team taking charge of the assistant's development. The revamped Siri is expected as early as spring 2026. The Answers team is Apple's most concrete step toward competing directly with ChatGPT, potentially offering users AI-powered search without relying on external partnerships like its current ChatGPT integration. AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
