A week in Generative AI: CES, GPT Store & More Robots
News for the week ending 14th January 2024

This week is always a big week for technology with CES running and it was no surprise that lots of technology companies were promoting their wares with āAI insideā. Most of the announcements I would classify as āfunā, nothing really groundbreaking, but some interesting ideas. Oh, and OpenAI launched the GPT Store after a bit of a delay following the leadership snafu late last yearā¦
OpenAI launched the GPT Store
Not much fanfare here I donāt think. Will be interested to see where this goes - Iām a bit 50/50 at the moment on whether this will be as significant as the App Store or whether it will slowly fade away as AI Assistants become more and more capable.
The R1 Is An Adorable AI-Powered Device That Brings All Your Phone Apps In One Place
This is probably my favourite announcement from CES this year - itās an interesting take on the fusion of AI and the mobile form factor that doesnāt replace your phone, but complements it instead. It looks great, I love the inclusion of āanalogā controls like a scroll wheel and itās already sold out 2 pre-order batches already!
Samsung brings back Ballie, its home robot, at CES 2024 ā with a few upgrades
I think weāll see robots like this at CES every year for the next 5-10 years until we start to see affordable, mass produced humanoid robots for the home. Theyāre interesting, sometime cute and quite niche but ultimately I think you need a humanoid robot to bring real value to the home as homes are fundamentally built around the humanoid form.
Volkswagen is bringing ChatGPT into its cars and SUVs
ChatGPT in cars was always going to happen, Mercedes did it last year and Volkswagen are now following suit. Iām not sure itās bringing a huge amount of value to the driving experience yet, but I can see it being very useful in the future if itās able to control car settings, help diagnose problems and can give the emergency services important information about the vehicle if thereās an accident.
CES 2024: The weirdest tech, gadgets and AI claims from Las Vegas
AI binoculars (actually look pretty good!), Dynamic sound that reacts to your driving style, and a voice absorbing muzzle. Thereās always weird and wonderful technologies released at CES and this year is no exception!
Bland AI - the worldās fastest conversational AI
If youāve ever used ChatGPTās voice feature youāll know that one of the big things holding it back is the noticeable delay before it starts replying to you. Great to see progress being made here!
AI Ethics News
In the race for AI supremacy, China and the US are travelling on entirely different tracks
Slew of deepfake video adverts of Sunak on Facebook raises alarm over AI risk to election
āThe future is already here, itās just not evenly distributed.ā
William Gibson