Highlights from Day 1 of CES 2025

I don’t speak Polish. But after using an AI-powered language translator, I had no problem understanding what the person standing next to me was saying when he told me that he wanted to see if the device in his hand could correctly interpret what he was saying despite the loud piano next to us. (It did, I think.)

The Q1 language translator, from translating brand Vasco, allows users to record their own voices across languages. Voice cloning tech then preserves your speaking style — cadence, tone — and translates it.

The company said that their tech can be used for companies that do business overseas, or in the medical field. Keeping a uniform voice across languages, they said, could be especially helpful for patients who have dementia and who may be confused or startled by a different voice speaking to them than what they are used to.

To test it, I spoke Persian into the device and had it speak back to me in English. It not only faithfully interpreted what I said, but also said it in a voice that sounded very much like my own.

Have you noticed the difference between driving an electric vehicle and one with a combustion engine?

Fast Effect, in partnership with American Axel and Manufacturing (AAM), designed a digital engagement simulator showing users the difference between driving an EV and a gas-powered car.

CES attendees can spend time driving through an imaginary terrain through hills and winding roads with the varying vehicle types.

Walking around the Venetian expo, I found a fuzzy pink friend hidden among the construction and smart home booths dotting the hall: a cute AI robot meant to be pet.

Ropet uses sensors that help the furry companion interact with whoever’s holding it. It has customizable eye colors and can be outfitted with different types of accessories, like a little crown.

The pet is warm to the touch and vibrates when you pet it, letting you know it likes your attention. Just don’t forget to feed it! Mine liked bananas.

x) 100vw, 800px" srcset="https://dims.apnews.com/dims4/default/e59cb0d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3024x4032+0+0/resize/599x799!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Fca%2Fda%2F3ffb6c0a408088b2b0d57b235449%2Fimg-1130.jpg 1x,https://dims.apnews.com/dims4/default/a428d0d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3024x4032+0+0/resize/1198x1598!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Fca%2Fda%2F3ffb6c0a408088b2b0d57b235449%2Fimg-1130.jpg 2x" alt="Image" width="599" height="799" />

People are waiting in long lines to see some of the biggest names in tech unveil their latest products. At the nvidia keynote Monday night, thousands lined up to catch CEO Jensen Huang discuss what’s next for the chipmaker. Michelob Ultra Arena was packed like a concert, and some attendees lined up two hours before the talk was scheduled to begin.

Delta’s Tuesday keynote at the massive Sphere venue spawned long lines hours before it began — and the wait wasn’t even to get inside. Hundreds of people were lined up hoping to snag a ticket to the event. One woman at the back of the line said she’d been waiting for 45 minutes, and hundreds were still ahead of her in the queue.

Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of Elon Musk’s X, told an audience at CES that it’s “really exciting” and validating that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is scrapping the company’s professional fact-checking program in favor of crowd-sourced “community notes.”

The program lets X users write fact checks on posts after the users are accepted as contributors. The checks are then rated by other users based on their accuracy, sources, how easily they are to understand, and whether they use neutral language. The crowd-sourced fact-checking program was launched in 2021 by the previous leadership of the site — then known as Twitter — and was called Birdwatch. Musk renamed it Community Notes after he took over the site in 2022. Yaccarino lauded the program, saying it “inspires great behavior,” and posts that have community notes are less likely to be shared.

Yaccarino also said that X is growing “everywhere we look” and advertisers are returning to the platform. While this may be the case, analyst firms including Emarketer have noted that those advertisers are not spending at the same levels as they did before Musk’s takeover.

Yaccarino also took the time to criticize traditional news outlets,

“When we look at the sad, challenged state of journalism today” — including “constant layoffs,” she said, the “future of news is not legacy media.”

“Legacy media news has become almost like a fan service to make sure you speak to a niche audience to make your budget,” she said, adding that X is a “great place” for journalists to “thrive and earn a great living.”

Samsung’s new televisions are embracing a more interactive role in entertaining you.

The company’s “Samsung Vision AI” search now allows users to do things like identify an actor on screen, or provide real-time translation of subtitles.

“We’re reimagining what screens can do, connecting entertainment, personalization and lifestyle solutions into one seamless experience to simplify your life,” says SW Yong, president and head of visual display business at Samsung Electronics.

Anker has unveiled its Solix Solar Beach Umbrella at CES, a literal stand-up umbrella fitted with the company’s new generation of solar cells.

According to the Anker, the collapsible device can produce up to 100W of power, which should be enough to keep phones and other devices charged. And, yes, we asked: It does actually protect you from rain (IP67 rated).

Although the company is mum on the price, the umbrella will be available either spring or summer 2025.

Panasonic diving deeper into artificial intelligence. The company has launched “Panasonic Go,” a corporate initiative that it says will drive growth through AI investments across the tech giant’s operations.

Joined onstage by “Captain America” star Anthony Mackie, CEO Yuki Kusumi announced this new initiative and other advances from the tech giant in a keynote for CES on Tuesday. By 2035, Kusumi noted, Panasonic HD aims to see 30% of its core revenue represented by AI-related business.

Also on Tuesday, Panasonic’s wellness arm, Panasonic Well, gave a sneak peak of “Umi” — a new platform that uses AI to be a “personalized family wellness coach.” A quick demo from Panasonic showed Umi, which appears like a chatbot, respond to users and perform various tasks — including scheduling family get gatherings, tracking and suggesting favorite activities and summarizing how relatives are doing. Umi is set to be available this year, according to Panasonic.

At a media question and answer session, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told reporters that one of the most important things that the company announced Monday was Cosmos — a foundation model that understands the physical world.

Just as GPT was a foundation model that understood language and Stable Diffusion was a foundation model that understood images, Nvidia created a foundation model that understands things like “friction, inertia, gravity, object presence and permanence, geometric and spatial understanding,” Huang said.

“Children know, they understand the physical world, in a way that language models today don’t,” He continued. “We believe that there needs to be a foundation model that understands the physical world. Now, once we create that, all the things that you could do with GPTs and all the things that you can do with Stable Diffusion’s, you can now do with Cosmos.”

A world model like Cosmos is necessary, he said, because “if you want AI to be able to operate, interact in the physical world, sensibly, you’re going to have to have an AI that understands that.”

“Self-driving cars need to understand the physical world. Robotics need to understand the physical world,” he said. “These models are the starting point of enabling all of that.”

Honda showcased prototypes of the first two models of its 0 series, the Japanese auto maker’s upcoming line of high-tech electric vehicles, at CES in Las Vegas this week.

The two EV models — named the Honda 0 SUV and Honda 0 Saloon — are set to launch in North America next year, Honda confirmed Tuesday. Other global markets will follow.

Honda also unveiled the vehicle operating system that it plans to use in all 0 series models. The software — named “AISMO OS,” as homage to a humanoid robot that Honda brought to CES 20 years ago — will be integrated into vehicle systems ranging from automated driving and advanced driver assistance to in-car infotainment, the company said.

Comedians Tim Meadows and Ken Jeong were on stage for BMW’s new Panoramic iDrive and Operating System X announcement. The system will be featured in all of their next-generation vehicles hitting the market in fall 2025.

The new system projects a panoramic screen onto the vehicle’s windshield, controlled by a touchscreen below and voice commands.

Autonomous lawn mower takes the work out of yard work

John Deere’s fully autonomous lawn mower aims to cut grass faster — and quieter. The manufacturing company says its new technology could help with labor shortages in commercial landscaping.

The lawn mower is also fully electric, and John Deere says it can last up to 10 hours before it needs to be charged again.

Special cameras give the lawn mower a 360-degree view, so you can set it and forget it while it cuts the grass. John Deere says it mows the lawn at about 6 mph. (That’s like a 10-minute mile on the treadmill.)

Holoconnects is showcasing its latest holographic devices at CES. Its “holoboxes” have been used over recent years to help people communicate through both life-size and mini holograms from around the world.

André Smith, Holconnects’ CEO and co-founder, says that the company has deployed hundreds of these devices for a variety of uses, such as bringing doctors to rural communities and helping teachers enter numerous classrooms simultaneously. And most recently, Holoconnects is also tapping into AI and the hotel business.

In collaboration with hospitality management, Holoconnects has launched an AI-avatar technology designed to work at hotel front desks. The company says this technology is currently available a select number of Aiden by Best Western hotels in Denmark.

“This AI avatar can do everything from checking in (or) generating a room key, to booking an Uber and booking a restaurant,” Smith explains. He adds that these efforts are not aimed at replacing current staff, but “to make sure that on-side staff can focus on real human connection” in other ways.

CES attendees and Las Vegas visitors may see some driverless cars on the Strip this week. And the company behind them, Amazon-owned Zoox, says it’s a preview of what’s to come.

The carriage-style blue shuttles, which don’t have a steering wheel or pedals, are currently on the roads in three cities: Las Vegas, San Francisco and Foster City, California. For now, riders remain limited to company employees and special guests, but Zoox says its robotaxis will soon roll out to the public as a rail-hailing service — and Vegas is at the top of its list.

“We are really excited to be rolling out to our first customers later this year,” said Jesse Levinson, co-founder and CTO of Zoox — noting that the public rollout will start in 2025 with a free “Zoox Explorers” program for those in Las Vegas who want to try the service. The company did not give more specific timing, but said that San Francisco would follow.

Right now, Levinson said, Zoox currently has a couple dozen robotaxis in Las Vegas and San Francisco — and the company plans to expand that figure by “several fold” over the course of the year. Zoox is one of many competitors angling to challenge Waymo, whose robotaxi service is already established in Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco — with plans to expand to Miami, Atlanta and Austin.

Ear care company Bebird has ear wax on display at CES. Its new over-the-ear cleaner that looks like some brand-name headphones has small cameras and sensors, which hook up to an app on your cellphone that shows you the wax inside your ear canal.

That’s why, Chief Marketing Officer Helen Wang jokes, the tagline of their newest product is “ear care you can see.“

Wang said Bebird’s products are available online and currently ship only to customers in the U.S.

Educational toy company Learning Resources is showcasing “Cooper,” a STEM-friendly robot aimed at helping kids as young as five years old get exposure to the basics of coding. Without using a screen, kids can use directional buttons to solve different coding challenges — moving the product forward, back, right and left — or use additional features to make the bot dance, sing and interact with others.

The challenges and lesson plans that come with the toy were developed with input from teachers, Learnings Resources executives explained at CES this week. “Cooper” is set to be available for purchase starting next month.

Toyota has been working to expand its reach beyond cars for years — and the Japanese company provided an update for one of its most ambitious projects at CES this week.

Toyota announced Monday that it’s preparing to officially launch “Woven City,” a site located near the base of Mt. Fuji that the company advertises as a “test course” for all things mobility, later this year. Toyota says it’s completed the construction of Woven City’s “phase 1” buildings and plans to start welcoming its first residents as early as fall 2025.

Those residents will initially be Toyota employees and their families, the company said, estimating that about 100 people will participate upon launch. Woven City’s total population is expected to reach 2,000 over time, with the community set to gradually include outside scientists and inventors as well, according to Toyota.

Toyota first announced the concept for Woven City five years ago. In remarks Monday, Toyota Motor Corporation Chair Akio Toyoda called Woven City a “living laboratory” for innovation — ranging from anything like sustainable energy and autonomous transportation, to interactive pet robots.

Chipmaker Intel spotlighted its latest AI PC technologies ahead of CES 2025.

In a Monday keynote, Intel unveiled new processors in its “Core Ultra” series for mobile computing.

The company says these processors will bring increased efficiency, with longer battery life, and AI enhancements to boost performance across businesses, creator and gaming customers. Intel’s announcement arrives amid rising competition in the AI PC space.

Intel was once a dominant force in the semiconductor industry but has been eclipsed by rival Nvidia, which has cornered the market for chips that run artificial intelligence systems. The company posted a $16.6 billion loss and halted its dividend in the most recent quarter.

Also this week, rival AMD unveiled its latest Ryzen series processors, while also boasting unprecedented performance for gamers and content creators.

In a packed Las Vegas arena, Nvidia founder Jensen Huang stood on stage and marveled over the crisp real-time computer graphics displayed on the screen behind him. He watched as a dark-haired woman walked through ornate gilded double doors and took in the rays of light that poured in through stained glass windows.

“The amount of geometry that you saw was absolutely insane,” Huang told an audience of thousands at CES 2025 Monday night. “It would have been impossible without artificial intelligence.”

The chipmaker and AI darling unveiled its GeForce RTX 50 Series desktop and laptop GPUs — its most advanced consumer graphics processor units for gamers, creators and developers. The tech is designed for use on both desktop and laptop computers.

Ahead of Huang’s speech, Nvidia stock climbed 3.4% to top its record set in November. Nvidia and other AI stocks keep climbing even as criticism rises that their stock prices have already shot too high, too fast. Despite worries about a potential bubble, the industry continues to talk up its potential.

Huang said the GPUs, which use the company’s next-generation artificial intelligence chip Blackwell, can deliver breakthroughs in AI-driven rendering.

▶ Read more about Nvidia and Huang’s announcement