Las Vegas is getting ready for CES 2024, with the final touches being put in place.
There are 2.5 million square feet of convention space for 4,000 exhibitors, and they're expecting 130,000 attendees this year—roughly the population of Dayton, Ohio—which would make it one of the biggest conventions they've had at CES.
And the big theme this year includes artificial intelligence in everything.
Of course, there's actual artificial intelligence and machine learning, and of course, there's that automation that will be billed as AI. It will be up to those 130,000 attendees to distinguish between the two.
Scripps News talked to one of the organizers, who said that of the 250 speaking engagements and 1,000 speakers, she estimates roughly 90% will somehow incorporate AI into their conversations. She also detailed a new partnership with the United Nations to increase access to technology worldwide.
"So United Nations, you know, has these pillars, and they say, 'What as humans are our human rights? It's access to food, access to clean water, access to safety.' Well, now access to technology has been created as the eighth pillar of human security, saying that we need people to have access to technology to better their lives, to have safer living experiences,” said CES spokesperson Allison Fried.
Of course, the wars in Gaza and Ukraine are getting a lot of attention right now.
There's a Ukrainian pavilion at CES that showcases some of the entrepreneurs from Ukraine that are trying to make tech advancements that could actually aid the country in the war.
The other big concern at the beginning of the week right now, obviously, is the spread of COVID.
As we see CDC numbers showing a spike in COVID activity across the country and so many people attending the convention from all over the country and all over the world, there is concern that COVID could spread at the CES.
So they have increased the open air in the convention halls and widened a lot of the alleys between convention spaces. They've also provided a lot of hand sanitizer stations, and they're trying to reduce touch points with a lot more voice and motion activation in some of the exhibits, and they're providing on-site COVID testing, hoping that those will provide the necessary resources to avoid a large spread of COVID-19 at CES 2024.
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