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Whew — what a week!

Thank you for coming along with us to the AI 2.0 wonderland that was CES 2024.

We thoroughly enjoyed bringing you boots-on-the-ground coverage straight from the show floor, sharing snippets of the AI innovations coming your way at breakneck speed.

From lifelike AI and see-through TV's to autonomous vehicles and breakthroughs in healthcare, CES gave us a peek into an AI dominated future.

As the lights go down in Las Vegas, what struck me most was the enthusiasm surrounding AI's upcoming real-world impact.

Make no mistake — the prototypes are being productized, and the pilots are being green lit.

The AI 2.0 revolution has left the station!

I want to sincerely thank our remarkable team of analysts for their insightful commentary, and YOU our loyal readers for your enthusiasm and engagement.

But the journey has only just begun…

So if you haven’t already, be sure to check out James Altucher’s closing thoughts he just sent to his Investment Network.

We’ll see you next year!

~Matt

As always, no shortage of gimmicky stuff. Here's the world's smartest toilet, with an E-ink display to change the design.

Robot for collecting trash from the ocean.

I think my biggest takeaway from CES 2024 is that AI technology is foundationally ready for prime time.

Companies spent 2023 building, training and perfecting the basic AI technology. We saw the technology begin to show up in actual applications that we use on a day-to-day basis. But the truth is, much of what has been developed so far is prototype-level.

This year, AI technology will advance from prototypes and "concepts" into hard applications that are used by businesses and individuals.

And in many cases, we may not recognize the new advances as AI on the surface. Just like you and I probably don't think about the internet when we book a ticket for a show, read a news article, or order something from Amazon. The internet has become fully integrated into many areas of our lives.

Similarly, we won't think about AI when we go to the doctor, review a vacation we're interested in, or even research a stock to buy. But AI technology will be hard at work in the background for many areas of our lives in 2024 and beyond, creating efficiencies, opening up new opportunities, and leading to healthier and happier lives.

If Meta (META) can get their VR technology small enough to fit into a standard pair of glasses, a partnership with Ray Ban could be a big hit!

Another video of the transparent TVs Bob posted a few days back. These TVs are straight out of Minority Report. 

Nobody shows up to CES quite like Hyundai (HYMTF). Here's an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle they've unveiled from their subsidiary Supernal. 

Some of Hyundai’s (HYMTF) robots.

Generative AI creating a picture on a local device based on some random sentence.

I need to get up to speed on Mobileye (MBLY). Possibly worth trading in 2024.

Robot for golf caddies/luggage:

And a robot for greenhouse maintenance. The robotic arm costs $15,000, and according to this vendor, the price hasn't changed much over time. Massive opportunity for businesses that figure out how to collapse the cost on this.

“We’re all coders now!” Here's one of Intel’s VP’s showing how a chatbot can create/replace code…

This “watch” senses when you move your fingers and allows you to use your hand as a mouse for any Apple product (iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, etc).

There are some interesting, and potentially scary facial recognition/social credit score concepts…

AI helping to propel business forward with real-time AI processing.

An Aurora autonomous truck, they're currently doing supervised testing in Texas and the Sunbelt but they expect that by the end of the year their fleet of autonomous trucks will be able to run fully autonomously.

At one of the large convention centers checking out some of the industrial AI applications James asked me to look into.

Interesting concept for an autonomous robotic tractor. 

One of the things holding back fully autonomous passenger vehicles is unpredictable driver / pedestrian behavior on the road…

But farms are far more predictable environments and ripe for robotic innovation. 

NASDAQ’s Adena Friedman discussing how the exchange has invested in AI technology to fight against financial crime.

And now that a spot Bitcoin ETF has been approved, NASDAQ will have even more responsibility to safeguard these products.

Had a couple of meetings this morning with startup founders, one building a tool to detect AI generated content, another building a tool that replaces fashion photography with AI generated imagery, another working on using synthetic data to train new AI models, and a fourth to discuss the benefits of performing AI inference on a device rather than in the cloud.

Some key takeaways:

• Detecting AI generated content is incredibly hard. Especially AI generated images because many cameras/phones perform AI processing on the image as soon as it's taken. Planning to look into cameras that cryptographically sign images on the device this afternoon to be able to prove image authenticity

• AI generated fashion photography seems like an obvious slam dunk. Although there are still issues with being able to take a photo of a piece of clothing and put them on a model of different body shapes/ poses, the technology here is rapidly advancing. I think in 12-18 months it's going to be hard to justify an old fashioned photoshoots

• The viability of using synthetic data to train AI is still hotly debated - one side maintains that philosophically it won't work because garbage in/garbage out, the other side thinks that prompt transformation - I. E. Getting multiple AI models to talk to themselves in a way that replicates subconscious internal dialogue - could result in AI responses that are more deeply considered than the types of responses ChatGPT can provide today

• The most compelling use case for on-device inference are applications that require cutting milliseconds off of computation time (e.g. driverless cars, surgery robots) or high degree of privacy (health data or real time processing of ones environment for augmented reality)

Qualcomm CEO says we’re wrapping up the first inning of generative AI - with a long runway still ahead.

The tech foundation has been set - and now we’re in the early stages of developing use cases

Honda says it’s set to debut this EV in the US approx 2026. Hands down one of the best looking of the “soon” to be released EVs at the show

No date on this futuristic toaster…

Lotus Robotic Street Sweeper:

Pet Care tapping into the AI/machine learning trend.

GPS Tracker Smart INSOLE:

Joe Theisman getting in on the action…

Grocery getter:

Grand Turismo — in the Sony booth. Really cool set up.

Vuzix AR. These were for medical use.

The screen was clear, but very small. Still, really cool.

Hyundai stepping up its game!

LG transparent 4k TV — freaking amazing! No price point, but releases this year.

Earbuds 2.0 They don’t go in your ear — vibrations sound waves through the bones.

Contemporary Van life

Augmented reality (AR) glasses that can show you your speed, direction and other information in a heads up display (HID) while you’re driving!

This company makes chips that go in cameras to sense and interpret (via AI) what the camera is seeing.

Helpful for robots in a factory or warehouse. 

Also medical uses for endoscopy and detecting what’s going on in a patient's body.

Wonder what kind of pilot’s license I need to fly one of these?

Walmart Inc. (WMT)’s “4D ride” showcasing some of the technology the company uses to keep inventory fresh – moving - and available.

Not all AI technology is space age… Walmart Inc. (WMT) is using AI technology to predict customer demand, stock inventory close to where customers will need it — so they can deliver to 80% of the U.S. population the same day an order is placed!

Gail Boudreaux – CEO at Elevance Health — talking about how the healthcare industry is using AI to help patients understand their benefits, tap into the best care for their personal situation and more.

This hits close to home… my 102 year old Grandpa is in the hospital right now - and the family is working together to learn what care is available to him, how we can best assist him. And it can be very confusing.

So applying AI to help families understand care options could be a very important use case!

I’m here at the Intel Keynote presentation.

“Technology moves faster than products.

Products move faster than business.

And business moves faster than regulation.”

Both exciting and concerning words from Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger.

Interesting to hear the Intel CEO talk about how companies will want to keep their own data OFF cloud so they can use AI on their own data - but not make their data available to other AI platforms to give competitors an advantage.

Obviously AI will not END cloud data and cloud computing. But it may transform what data will and won’t be stored and manipulated on cloud platforms.

Prompt to animation, type the character behavior you want and the AI model will generate an animation of a character doing that motion

Pairs very nicely with something like this – hyper realistic 3d models of people taken with a standard iPhone camera

We may not need roads in the not-so-distant future…

Here’s the future of construction…

Drones survey the site & autonomous heavy machinery does the heavy lifting.

Just took a 3d VR tour of a small ASML Holding (ASML) fab. The company didn't want me to take pictures because their partnership with ASML is not public knowledge, but the ability to see and interact with the machinery was incredible. VR is going to be game-changing for investment research. Imagine being able to let investors walk through one of creek roads data centers or tour the mining site of recharge resources. Definitely a lot more compelling than photos alone. VR + Investor Relations is a match made in heaven.

The west hall of the convention center is nearly all automotive/autonomous/lidar.

AI / robotic bartender. Very cool application.

Robot manicures and massages. I love these use cases, seems like the future of self care is going to be unlimited.

Here’s the West Hall at the convention center:

Construction robots for small jobs, this system lets you put power tools on a rail system with computer vision.

Here’s a super cool helicopter from the show:

Meta is a complete bust! They have no open exhibit. They’re only hosting occasional private meetings, and nothing consumer related. Very disappointing.

Samsung too… client invites only!

James has been saying forever that AI will impact the most BORING industries first. Here’s how AI will impact one of those boring industries… Farming.

Here’s an inflatable aeroponic farm that pulls water from the air & utilizes an AI based system control for customized cultivation:

John Deere utilizing AI in a BIG way too. Will JD be the next Magnificent Seven stock??

I’m here with a huge crowd of people waiting for the rooms to open for the day.

Here’s the showroom floor at the convention center:

I’m here at the Panasonic presentation room. Media attendees are bouncing around everywhere, waiting for the main event to start.