CES DAY One Highlights Reel Edition

Happy Tuesday Tech Buzzers,

Buckle up, and get your sombrero on tight because CES 2025 Media Day was nothing short of a whirlwind! The energy here in Vegas is electric, and our team has been buzzing non-stop to bring you the latest from the show floor. Forget what you thought you knew about tech; this year, AI is not just a feature; it’s the main course, infiltrating every corner of the consumer tech world from your PC, to your smart home, your vehicle, personal robot or every edge device you’ve heard of and many you haven’t, and to the gaming rig and beyond.

A wide range of technologies and innovation was revealed on the Media Day of CES 2025 Monday. Alongside the expected latest Supercomputer in a box AI Chips, and huge physical AI strategy unveiled by Nvidia, the AI PCs and Massive OLED Displays and other XR and visual geekery, gaming Tech and The Last of Us 2 – these also covered massive updates in areas across Smart homes, energy control, Toyota’s utopian urbanist smart city at the foot of Mt Fuji, through to massive AI-powered wellness tools and accessibility enhancements.

Sony and Honda’s Afeela EV is making waves in autonomous driving, and Sony announced The Last of Us season 2 is coming in April with a Horizon Zero Dawn film in development. Smart homes are becoming smarter and more connected, with Samsung pushing "screens everywhere" and Google adding AI-powered news summaries to its TVs. A robot vacuum with a robotic arm? Check. Even Anker hits the vegas sands with a solar-powered beach umbrella that powers your cooler, and if you so choose a $10K AI bitcoin mining rig, or tech media HQ in the desert!

But it's not all fun and games. The discussion around AI’s impact on jobs and the implications of Trump tariffs were in the air too. The feeling? A mix of excitement and uncertainty, as we stand at the cusp of major changes.

And of course what would CES be without a Sam Altman forecast of Superhuman Intelligence and masses of robots just around the corner. 

Stay tuned for more as CES unfolds!

Inside Today’s CES Coverage

• Nividia’s Supercomputers, latest AI Chips, and huge physical AI strategy unveiled.

• AI PCs Everywhere

• OLED Displays and other XR and visual geekery,

• Smart homes and energy control

• Google’s AI World Models and AI TVs

• Robotics and Autonomous Vehicles Update

• Chip Innovation from Intel, Qualcomm and AMD

• AI-powered wellness tools and accessibility enhancements.

• Trump Geopolitics and 5 Dimensional Chess

• Toyota’s utopian urbanism and Woven City smart robotic city

• Gaming Tech and The Last of Us 2

More TechBuzz Coverage:

• DeepBuzz Full Deep Dive

• Deluxe Edition

• A Live updated curated of our latest coverage over the week (Bookmark the Page)

Nvidia

The day finished off with a bang, as expected, with Nvidia unveiling its next-gen AI chips and a sweeping strategy for physical AI. CEO Jensen Huang emphasized the industry's race to scale AI, noting that the more data, the larger the models, and the more compute you apply, the better. Nvidia showcased its commitment to advancing AI, robotics, autonomous vehicles, and computer graphics, revealing technologies and partnerships poised to redefine what's achievable in the physical world with AI. The RTX 50 series GPUs were officially announced, including the RTX 5090 for $1,999, with 4,000 AI TOPs, 92 billion transistors, 380 RT TFLOPs and G7 memory offering 1.8 TB/s bandwidth, and is set to be a game changer for gaming and more. The RTX 5070 will offer RTX 4090 performance for $549.

It wasn't just about chips and graphics, though. Sony and Honda unveiled their Afeela EV, starting at $89,900, signaling a new direction for the automotive industry that combines car manufacturing expertise with software and infotainment. Sony also announced the XR Head-Mounted Display SRH-S1, with 4K per eye resolution, to further blur the lines between physical and digital realities. And in a surprise announcement, Sony dropped a lot of PlayStation adaptation news, revealing that The Last of Us season 2 will hit HBO in April, along with a Horizon Zero Dawn film in the works.

Smart Homes

The smart home space is also heating up. With the foundation of Matter, a unified connectivity standard, devices are about to get a whole lot smarter and more interconnected. We expect major new product announcements from companies like Aqara, Nanoleaf, and Samsung, which is pushing its “screens everywhere” initiative to bring touchscreen interfaces to all its appliances. Additionally, Samsung is using AI in its TVs with real-time translation features, personalized wallpapers, and a new OLED Smart Monitor. And Google is adding a "News Brief" feature to its TVs using Gemini AI to summarize the day's news, a sign of the growing importance of AI even in media consumption. Roborock’s new vacuum-mop hybrid, the Saros Z70, features a robot arm, demonstrating just how far robotics has come and what is now possible with household devices.

Robotics

Huang claims the chatgpt moment for robotics is just around the corner. Nvidia's Isaac GROOT system will enable robot training, testing, and simulation before being deployed to the robot. Huang claims it could accelerate the development of practical robotics solutions. A demo showed how individuals can use an Apple Vision Pro to teach robots how to perform tasks through the Blueprint modality.

Digital Twins

Huang also announced Mega, an Omniverse Blueprint for robotic fleet management, targeting warehouses. This tech allows for the development and testing of digital twins of robotic systems. The significance is that it aims to optimize routes and workflows for robotics systems, which could lead to more efficient warehouse operations and accelerate the adoption of robotics in logistics. 

"In the future every factory will have a digital twin, and every digital twin will operate exactly like a real factory," 

— Jensen Huang

Autonomous Vehicles

Nvidia is also leading the charge in autonomous vehicle tech, partnering with Toyota and others, and using its AI-powered Omniverse and Cosmos platforms to train self-driving systems for the next next-gen of autonomous vehicles, using Nvidia’s Drive AGX Orin supercomputer and DriveOS. Nvidia also mentioned its partnerships with Tesla, BYD, Lucid, Aurora and Xiaomi. This is significant as it demonstrates Nvidia’s strong focus on the automotive industry and its commitment to making autonomous vehicles a reality.

It is using its Omniverse and Cosmos platforms to generate an AI world model factory-powered training system with billions of miles of training data from thousands of drives. This will speed up the development of autonomous driving technologies. 

Other Autonomous Vehicles News included:

• John Deere is entering the autonomous vehicle market with electric robotic tractors and dump trucks for agriculture and construction.

• Toyota's Woven City is becoming a testbed for autonomous vehicle tech, and they are exploring using rocket tech for telecommunications.

• Hyundai is integrating its SmartThings platform into EVs, using AI to optimize charging and vehicle location.

• LG’s in-cabin AI offers personalized and convenient features for autonomous vehicles, including productivity tools and safety features, and can suggest alternative routes when it detects changes in routines.

• BMW and Honda are both debuting new EV platforms with advanced tech and operating systems.

• Sony and Honda’s Afeela car may also be on display at the show, featuring a built in PS5.

• AI is crucial for the development of autonomous vehicles, used in training, simulation, and in-cabin experiences.

• There's a continued massive push for electric propulsion across the sector, including cars, air taxis, and commercial vehicles.

• Global competition is increasing in the electric and autonomous vehicle sectors, particularly between China and the U.S..

• The robotics and autonomous vehicle sectors are converging into one oif the largest industries ever seen on the planet..

Robotics Takes Center Stage

Outside of Nvidia’s robotics updates, this year's CES is seeing some impressive advances in robotics with a focus on autonomy and practical applications.

• Roborock's Saros Z70 is leading the charge with a new robot vacuum-mop hybrid that has a robotic arm to pick up and move objects, shifting from avoidance to removal.

• OpenDroids' R2D3 is a multi-tasking home assistant robot designed to handle chores like laundry and dishes, promising a future where household cleaning is a thing of the past.

• Samsung’s Ballie robot is finally poised for a consumer launch, offering a personal home assistant that moves autonomously and completes various tasks.

• John Deere is pushing into autonomous landscaping with a new electric robot lawnmower, alongside larger commercial-grade autonomous vehicles for orchards, tilling, and quarry operations.

• RoboForce is developing highly accurate robots designed to handle tedious and hazardous tasks like solar panel installation.

• Toyota’s Woven City initiative is now open for business, aiming to be a living laboratory for testing new technologies, including robotics. They've even taught robot arms to fold t-shirts.

Chip Innovation

Major chip manufacturers are all emphasizing AI integration and power efficiency.

• Intel unveiled its new Core Ultra 200H processors, highlighting AI-enhanced power efficiency and a partnership with Samsung on the new Galaxy Book 5 Pro.

• Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X chip targets the mid-range market with a focus on multi-day battery life and will power some of Microsoft's Copilot+ PCs.

• AMD has announced new processors including the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D for enhanced gaming performance, and the Ryzen Z2 series for handheld gaming devices.

Wellness Tech is On The Rise

• Therabody is launching Coach, a digital recovery platform using AI to create personalized wellbeing plans.

• Elvie's Rise is an app-controlled baby bouncer that can convert into a bassinet.

• Amazon and Kidde are partnering to integrate Ring technology into smoke detectors, adding monitoring services.

• Many companies are integrating AI chatbots into existing health devices and services.

The overarching theme? AI is everywhere, driving advancements across these sectors, from more efficient chip designs to more sophisticated robots and personalized wellness devices.

Google’s AI World Models 

Google wasn’t even presenting today but it crashed the headlines with news it is forming a new team to work on AI models that can simulate the physical world. Tim Brooks, a co-lead on OpenAI's video generator, Sora, will lead the team at Google DeepMind. It will build on work from Google’s Gemini, Veo, and Genie teams to tackle critical new problems and scale models to the highest levels of compute. Google’s Genie model is a take on a world model, which can simulate games and 3D environments in real-time. Like Nvidia, Google believes that scaling AI training on video and multimodal data is critical to achieving artificial general intelligence, and that world models will power domains such as visual reasoning, simulation, planning for embodied agents, and real-time interactive entertainment.

Google TV

Google also unveiled an updated TV operating system using its Gemini AI assistant to provide news summaries called "News Brief". This feature compiles news stories from the internet and YouTube, creating a brief summary of the day's events. Google also intends to incorporate sensors so that the TV will respond when users enter the room and allow users to search and summarize movies and shows using natural language. These features will be released for new and existing Google TV devices toward the end of 2025 in a notable step from Google into AI news summaries and makes Tech journalists everywhere shake in their boots.

AGI Is Coming

Sam Altman has his own ideas about AGI to share yesterday too…The CEO of OpenAI, is keeping everyone on their toes, kicking off 2025 with a cryptic tweet and blogpost suggesting we're either nearing or already past the singularity, that point where AI surpasses human intelligence. He later clarified his cryptic message, which could be interpreted through either a simulation lens, or as commentary on identifying the exact moment of AI takeoff. Altman's tweet followed the announcement of OpenAI’s o3 model, which reached new highs across math, reasoning, and coding benchmarks.

It seems that after repeatedly stating that its foundational goal is to develop an artificial general intelligence (AGI) system that "benefits all of humanity", OpenAI is now aiming for "superintelligence," which they describe as tools that could "massively accelerate scientific discovery and innovation". It's a bit like they've moved the goalposts, but hey, at least we're having fun watching them chase the shiny new prize while losing money on their $200/month ChatGPT Pro subscriptions. It seems as though Jensen Huang is equally optimistic about AGI from his comments as well.

Trump Geopolitics and 5 Dimensional Chess

But amidst all the excitement, there’s an undercurrent of reflection. The potential for job losses due to automation and the ethical considerations of AI are very much at the forefront of discussion. There’s also some uncertainty with new Trump tariffs and the potential impact to the tech industry, alongside optimism regarding reindustrialization in the US, which will be powered by a re-prioritization of military and high tech towards AI. As one observer noted, “it is an odd limbo feeling tinged with hope and anticipation, even uncertainty”.

Automation (de-humanization?) of industry and the possible related job losses from AI are also at the forefront of discussion around the water coolers. Trump Tariffs are casting a shadow for some tech industry pundits and leaving others optimistic about the obvious potential of benefits to reindustrialization of the homeland and scaling up of the sub-standard US manufacturing industry on turbocharge. With a stated Trump goal of maintaining a strong US dollar and local high tech manufacturing sector. This will likely be mostly powered by a continued reprioritization of military and High Tech ecosystems towards AI over the coming year. 

Gaming Levels UP

The gaming world is also getting a serious upgrade as AMD is launching its Ryzen 9 9950X3D, designed for both gamers and creators, which is 8% faster on average in popular games like Starfield. The new AMD Ryzen Z2 series processors for handhelds were also announced and are set to power the next generation of portable gaming devices, starting with new versions of the ASUS ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go. For serious gamers, LG unveiled a new G5 OLED TV with a native refresh rate of 165Hz.Gaming Updates

Here's a quick rundown of some other key highlights:

• Anker unveiled its first solar-powered beach umbrella.

• Timekettle’s new $449 translation earbuds will make real-time translation possible.

• Circular unveiled its next-gen Ring 2 with ECG functionality and AFib detection.

• Belkin showcased the Stage Power Grip, a MagSafe power bank that doubles as a camera grip.

• Toyota is inviting inventors to join them at Woven City, a prototype smart city at the foot of Mount Fuji.

• Microsoft is planning an $80B AI infrastructure investment.

• NeuroXess reported advances in brain-computer interface (BCI) tech.

Wrapping Up Day One

The energy here in Vegas is palpable, and we're just getting started. The Tech Buzz team will be on the ground all week to bring you the latest as it unfolds. Stay tuned; you won’t want to miss what’s coming next!

CES 2025 has shown that the tech landscape is rapidly evolving, with AI as the driving force across multiple sectors. The integration of AI agents into various applications and devices suggests a move towards more autonomous systems that are seamlessly integrated into our daily lives. As the industry continues to push the boundaries of what is possible with AI and related technologies, investors, founders, and technology enthusiasts should expect new opportunities as well as challenges.

The TechBuzz CES 2025 HQ 

You can also see a full list of our live and curated CES coverage so far here, including s:

CES 2025 Preview from Monday’s newsletter 

• DeepBuzz Full Edition Comprehensive summary of news and insights from CES 2025 for the true tech enthusiast or research purposes

• **Save our Virtual HQ here for all the items we publish as it happens (Bookmark it and come back to it once the dust settles) 

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