CES, the Shopper Electronics Present, is the world’s greatest tech present, the place corporations launch new devices and announce new developments, and it occurs each January. This yr, it attracted over 148,000 attendees and over 4,100 exhibitors. It sprawls throughout the Las Vegas Conference Heart, the town’s greatest exhibition area, and spills over into adjoining inns.
China has lengthy had a presence at CES, however this yr it confirmed up in a giant means. Chinese language exhibitors accounted for practically 1 / 4 of all corporations on the present, and in pockets like AI {hardware} and robotics, China’s presence felt particularly dominant. On the ground, I noticed tons of Chinese language business attendees roaming round, plus a notable variety of Chinese language VCs. A number of skilled CES attendees advised me that is the primary post-covid CES the place China was current in a means you couldn’t miss. Final yr may need been trending that means too, however quite a lot of Chinese language attendees reportedly bumped into visa denials. Now AI has turn into the common excuse, and purpose, to make the journey.
As anticipated, AI was the most important theme this yr, seen on each sales space wall. It’s each the most important factor everyone seems to be speaking about and a deeply complicated advertising and marketing gimmick. “We added AI” is slapped onto every little thing from the cheap (PCs, telephones, TVs, safety programs) to the deranged (slippers, hair dryers, mattress frames).
Shopper AI devices nonetheless really feel early and of very uneven high quality. The most typical classes are academic units and emotional help toys—which, as I’ve written about lately, are all the fad in China. There are some memorable ones: Luka AI makes a robotic panda that scuttles round and retains a watchful eye in your child. Fuzozo, a fluffy keychain-size AI robotic, is principally a digital pet in bodily kind. It comes with a built-in persona and reacts to the way you deal with it. The businesses promoting these simply hope you gained’t assume too arduous concerning the privateness implications.
Ian Goh, an investor at 01.VC, advised me China’s manufacturing benefit offers it a novel edge in AI shopper electronics, as a result of quite a lot of Western corporations really feel they merely can’t battle and win within the area of {hardware}.
One other space the place Chinese language corporations appear to be on the head of the pack is family electronics. The merchandise they make have gotten impressively refined. Dwelling robots, 360 cams, safety programs, drones, lawn-mowing machines, pool warmth pumps … Do you know two Chinese language manufacturers principally dominate the marketplace for house cleansing robots within the US and are consuming the lunch of Dyson and Shark? Do you know virtually all of the suburban yard tech you should purchase within the West comes from Shenzhen, although that entire backyard-obsessed way of life barely exists in China? These things is so smooth that you simply wouldn’t clock it as Chinese language until you went wanting. The previous “low-cost and repetitive” stereotype doesn’t clarify what I noticed. I walked away from CES feeling that I wanted a significant house equipment improve.
After all, home equipment are a secure, mature market. On the extra experiential entrance, humanoid robots had been a large magnet for crowds, and Chinese language corporations placed on an excellent present. Each robotic gave the impression to be dancing, in types from Michael Jackson to Okay-pop to lion dancing, some even doing again flips. Hangzhou-based Unitree even arrange a boxing ring the place individuals might “problem” its robots. The robotic fighters had been about half the scale of an grownup human and the matches typically resulted in a robotic knockout, however that’s probably not the purpose. What Unitree was really exhibiting off was its robots’ stability and steadiness: they bought shoved, stumbled throughout the ring, and stayed upright, recovering mid-motion. Past flexing dynamic actions like these there have been additionally spectacular showcases of dexterity: Robots could possibly be seen folding paper pinwheels, doing laundry, taking part in piano, and even making latte artwork.
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Nevertheless, most of those robots, even the nice ones, are one-trick ponies. They’re optimized for a selected job on the present ground. I attempted to make one fold a T-shirt after I’d flipped the garment round, and it bought confused in a short time.
