CES Posits AI as the Next Big Thing

­AI will be a crucial component of the Internet of Things and industrial applications, but if CES 2024 is any indication, the consumer world will be clamoring for a piece of the artificially intelligent pie.

When any consumer technology is ready for the big leagues (or when there’s enough chatter about it and frivolous applications like ChatGPT), CES goes hogwild over it.  Because if the 60-inch 4K smart TV – or equivalent device – that you bought just last year isn’t already obsolete, then why bother plunking down hundreds more?

Though this year, it’s less about a minor televisual upgrade – ala 3D TVs – and more about consumer juggernauts struggling to make sense of an evolving technology that’s still in its infancy.

So we got kitschy tech demos like an interactive Super Mario answering attendee questions in an exaggerated Italian accent or a “smart mattress” that leverages AI to auto-adjust to your ideal sleep setup (and warn of health issues).

Microsoft is betting huge on its AI Copilot – according to its page, “Whether you’re writing, communicating, coding, designing, or just browsing, Copilot will be at the ready to respond to your request.”

Austria-based Swarovski Optik unveiled AI-powered smart binoculars, which identifies up to 9,000 species of birds and wildlife in its field of view.

Though this year’s AI showstopper might’ve actually been a video game application from Nvidia. Though as first-impressions go (within this niche, as the tech isn’t new), Nvidia Ace stumbled out of the gate.

Nvidia Ace is simultaneously able to translate player speech to text and provide a dynamic, fully-voiced response from non-player characters. The audio lip-sync tool would make sure the movements match the dynamic speech, and it would sample audio from consenting voice actors.

But the latter was…a bit unclear. When asked what data set its tools were trained on, Nvidia claimed there was “no simple answer”, leading to speculation that their “generative AI” was trained on copyrighted material.

Nvidia later clarified that their tech was trained on data it had the rights, though that didn’t entirely alleviate concerns – especially when prominent voice actors like Steve Blum disputed the notion that the “voiceover performer community” was entirely on-board.

I was definitely right about one thing – the CEA and all the consumer juggernauts were a lot more celebratory with AI than alarmist. Makes sense – AI’s the next potential cash cow. But I think they might’ve underestimated just how wary the public is of artificial intelligence.