Artificial Humans, Flying Ubers And The Home Of The Future At CES 2020

AI was ubiquitous throughout CES 2020, the world’s largest consumer technology show held earlier this month in Las Vegas. Across nearly 3 million square feet of exhibitors, there was a mesmerizing mix of future tech which explored themes of home is anywhere, mobility is autonomous, and wellness is paramount.

Although much of the utopian vision is still many iterations away, Element AI’s Jean-Francois Gagne explained it best as he presented a roadmap for AI at the LG press conference. He showed how voice AI, sensors, and single purpose robots are evolving to assist beyond just simple tasks.

With pattern learning, we will start to see greater personalization as AI begins to know who you are, your preferences, and can avoid repeating mistakes as it builds memory.

AI will then evolve to understand the why behind actions and will leverage causality learning to predict and promote outcomes.

Gagne explained that ultimately AI will develop capabilities on its own, making inferences through experimental learning and seeking information to test hypotheses beyond its original training set of operating parameters. In this world, interconnected devices will collaborate and share insights into behavior to form a collective intelligence that can research options and make recommendations for you, offering a life you could have never imagined.

While it may sound like we’re approaching The Singularity, most of what was touted at CES 2020 is still many years away. Here are some of the cooler concepts that were showcased.

The Smarter, Greener Kitchen

As appliance manufacturers get woke to the concept of biophilia (the human need to connect with nature), greener products like LG’s award-winning Home Gardening Cultivator which uses AI to monitor temperature, light and irrigation for the indoor farming of herbs and vegetables is making its way into the home. According to an LG spokesperson, the U.S. might begin to see the salad refrigerator enter its market in 2021. A smaller version started selling in Korea in November.

GE also showed off their futuristic Home Grown Kitchen in the Haier booth, the focal point being a green oasis of modular AI-powered aeroponic and hydroponic walls for indoor farming.

Samsung’s concept kitchen starred a giant pair of robotic arms called Bot Chef which can harvest vegetables from the refrigerator then slice and dice them. Not to be outdone by Samsung’s Ballie, a robotic assistant which can serve as dog muse while instructing Roomba to clean up Bot Chef’s mess.

AI You Can Talk To

Although most devices featured at CES 2020 were voice-enabled, many were not set up to engage in conversation on the show floor except at the Google Assistant Playground where voice commands were needed to navigate their Disneyland-style adventure. Showing dominance in the area of voice AI, Google announced it now has 500 million monthly active users in over 30 languages in more than 90 countries. Last year at CES, Google had announced one billion devices, which at the time was 10x the size of Amazon Alexa. Amazon also had an impressive showing at the Ring booth and at Amazon Afterhours, a press event where cocktails were served by celebrity chef Guy Fieri and NBA star Shaquille O’Neal.

At the NEON booth, Samsung offered a first look at artificial humans which one day are expected to respond empathetically like a best friend, Samsung STAR Labs CEO Pranav Mistry told me. You can’t yet talk to them but Mistry’s lab is working on developing a Core R3 neural network that will be able to create lifelike avatars from just a single image and through their interactions with the real world will be able to develop their own original personalities. NEONs will be also be able to sense mood and respond in nuanced ways. Mistry’s hope is to create more lifelike interfaces for CGI news anchors, yoga instructors, Instagram influencers, and other digital agents to make it easier for humans to engage with AI.

My favorite AI turned out to be a ping pong tutoring robot named FORPHEUS from Omron who was at CES showing off its new emotive capabilities. At the end of an exhilarating match, I was ready to buy it, but Nigel Blakeway, Chairman and CEO of Omron America, told me that FORPHEUS was not for sale, but rather a showcase for its human machine interface sensing and control technology.

Ping pong was quite a draw at a number of booths including Panasonic where CEO Michael Moskowitz talked to me about their transformation into becoming a premier B2B provider of immersive entertainment. Panasonic’s advanced projection technology is being showcased at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and across Disney theme parks.

Mobility and Smart Cities

Hyundai and Bell had breathtaking displays with their massive flying Ubers. Additionally Bell’s drone city cleverly showed vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) in all weather events. However, with Uber Elevate not commercially available until 2023, it was great to see other areas of autonomy already getting deployed.

Some of the most exciting innovation on the show floor was in the last mile delivery category with food delivery robots like the all-weather snowbot from Refraction AI and Starship Technologies’ adorable sidewalk delivery robot which operates across U.S. college campuses, in factories, and in states like Texas which allow personal delivery devices on sidewalks. Starship also recently expanded into the UK. Nearly fully autonomous, the robots have tele-operations enabled for edge cases when a human driver is needed to takeover. Founded by Skype founders Janus Friis and Ahti Heinla, Starship is a Series A startup with $82 million in funding from Morpheus Ventures, Shasta Ventures, TDK and other leading investors.

Beyond smart cities, innovation was also showcased on the farm and on the high seas. John Deere showed how AI is making a difference in the Heartland with precision spraying to reduce chemical use and increase crop yields, and Brunswick made a huge splash showing off their autonomous recreational boating experience. As a first time exhibitor, CEO Dave Foulkes told me that CES exceeded their expectations and that they plan to return next year, hopefully with lake demos.

In Eureka Park, the Epcot of CES where countries from around the world are invited to showcase their technology, the Tech Prince of The Netherlands, HRH Prince Constantjin, made an appearance. He told me that AI is prolific in The Netherlands. “Amsterdam was voted the smartest city in Europe with solutions like smart lighting for crowd control. Our public transport is keen on trying multimodal seamless transport solutions that are focused around the passenger instead of around the motor. Everything is becoming connected from the home to the car to the office and we’re looking at what kind of open urban data platforms can be developed where all kinds of suppliers can plug in.” With all the need for data, I asked him how a small nation balances privacy laws against innovation. He responded, “I’m a privacy realist and believe government should be responsive in creating opportunities for AI and making sure that GDPR is not making that impossible.”

Like a backstage pass to the future

There was just so much more. I had the chance to interview Dr. Oz on getting a better night sleep, Katie Couric on mentoring female journalists, Larry King on his millionth question podcast, EDM icon Kygo on his smart devices, and the Quibi team who just landed $1.4 billion to enter the streaming wars.

I delivered the 2020 Fintech Outlook for the opening Living In Digital Times press conference, moderated a CES fireside chat with digital money pioneers Brock Pierce and Vinny Lingham, presented my Best of CES Robots on CBS 8, and won a CES 2020 Media Trailblazer Award.

I also got to attend incredible afterhours events including the Spotify Supper with Ludacris and the terrifying HBO Westworld Experience.

In the end, despite best efforts, I was only able to cover a mere fraction of the show and I came to the conclusion that it’s just not possible to do it all, because, well, I’m human. Not sure how AI will ever be able to improve upon that, but I’m sure someone will try.