I spent 4 days at CES: Here’s EVERYTHING cool in 13 minutes

CES 2024: AI Overhype, Groundbreaking Tech, and Nvidia's Dominance

Key Concepts: AI overuse in marketing, haptic feedback, alternative magnets, smart health devices, robotics limitations, electric vehicles, Nvidia's RTX 50 series, Blackwell architecture, DLSS 4, physical AI, Cosmos, Omniverse, digital twins, Project Dits, real-time ray tracing, advanced video editing.

AI: Overhyped vs. Underhyped

The speaker observes a trend of companies excessively using the term "AI" for marketing purposes, even when the AI functionality is minimal or achievable through traditional programming.

• Example: AI Water: A reverse osmosis filter using AI for real-time water quality monitoring and filter replacement prediction. The speaker argues that these functions can be achieved without AI.
• Counterexamples: AI applications in robotic dogs for dementia patients (AI-Do), disease diagnostics (Neuroclues), and advanced vision for cleaning robots are considered valuable.
• Argument: AI is overhyped when used as a marketing buzzword but underhyped considering its potential and current real-world applications.

Rapid Fire Tech Review: The Good and the Bad

A quick overview of various technologies seen at CES, highlighting both promising and underwhelming products.

• Positive Examples:
  • Be Haptics Suit: Haptic feedback suit for VR, enhancing realism.
  • Exoskeleton Suit: Suit that adds strength to legs and back for heavy lifting.
  • Neuron Magnetics: Magnets made from abundant materials (iron and nitrogen) as an alternative to rare earth magnets.
• Negative Examples:
  • Health Scan Smart Mirror: Considered less practical than a mobile app for health data tracking. The speaker prefers the convenience of an app over a dedicated appliance.
  • Overpriced Smart Rings: Criticizes the $2,000 Ultrahuman smart ring, questioning its value proposition.
• Other Notable Tech:
  • Pillow that detects and adjusts for snoring.
  • Magnetic resistance exercise equipment (Amp).
  • Laser lamp for blood glucose monitoring (M Vitro).
  • Smart clothes for biometric tracking (Myant).

Robotics: Potential vs. Reality

The speaker expresses disappointment with the current state of consumer robotics, finding them slow and impractical for household tasks.

• Example: Unry Robot: A robot controlled to wave and shake hands, deemed not close to being useful around the house.
• Counterpoint: Acknowledges the existence of more advanced robots from companies like Figure, Tesla, and Boston Dynamics, but notes they weren't showcased at CES.
• Positive Example: A robot vacuum with an arm to pick up objects.

Electric Vehicles and Beyond

Highlights the presence of various electric vehicles and innovative transportation solutions.

• Examples: Electric firetrucks, tractors, RVs.
• Land Aircraft Carrier: A van ("mothership") that deploys a fully functional electric aircraft. It can take off and land vertically, be recharged from the mothership, and fly autonomously. Priced at $300,000 with public testing underway and production planned for the year.
• Other Technologies:
  • Spoon that tricks the brain into perceiving more saltiness.
  • At-home hormone detection device (Horom).
  • Smart glasses with live translation capabilities.
  • Smart bouncer that converts into a bassinet.
  • Stretchable screens for commercial applications.
  • "Jumping" supercar designed to autonomously jump over obstacles. The speaker is skeptical of its real-world practicality.

Nvidia's Dominance and Jensen Huang's Keynote

Nvidia is presented as the dominant force at CES, powering much of the showcased technology. Jensen Huang's keynote is described as a preview of the future.

• RTX 50 Series with Blackwell Architecture: A significant performance leap, with the RTX 5070 comparable to the 4090 at a lower price ($549). The 5090 features 92 billion transistors and 3,400 AI TOPS.
• DLSS 4: Introduces multiframe generation, reducing latency by generating three additional frames for every one frame computed by the GPU.
• RTX Neural Shaders and RTX Mega Geometry: Improvements in real-time face and hair rendering and ray tracing with up to 100x more detail.
• Physical AI and Cosmos: The next frontier of AI is physical AI. Cosmos is a new world foundation model equipping AI models with advanced simulation capabilities.
• Omniverse and Digital Twins: Omniverse, combined with Cosmos, is used to improve training data for autonomous vehicles by generating synthetic data to simulate various scenarios. This concept extends to creating digital twins of factories and warehouses for optimization.
  • Quote: "In the future, every factory will have a digital twin and that digital twin operates exactly like the real factory."
• AI Agent Blueprints: Nvidia is creating blueprints for custom AI agents and workflows, such as a combination of Blender and Flux for AI-assisted image creation.
• Project Dits: A personal AI supercomputer powerful enough to run 200 billion parameter models, using the Grace Blackwell super chip with one petaflop of AI computing performance, priced around $30,000.

Nvidia Demo Experiences

The speaker shares their experiences demoing Nvidia's new technologies.

• Advanced Graphics: A game showcasing advanced processing, ray tracing, and frame generation, resembling a high-quality cutscene played in real-time at 24 frames per second.
• Video Editing Capabilities: Demo of video editing in DaVinci Resolve with nine synced 4K camera feeds (422 color space) playing smoothly, highlighting the potential for faster render and export times.

Conclusion

CES 2024 showcased a mix of overhyped AI applications and genuinely groundbreaking technologies. Nvidia emerged as a dominant force, with its advancements in GPUs, AI, and simulation technologies poised to shape the future of various industries. The speaker expresses excitement about the potential of these technologies, particularly in video editing.