Everything you Need to Know Before the CES 2024 Conference

Every January brings one of the most highly anticipated events in the tech world, the Consumer Electronic Show. As one of the longest running and most prolific trade shows in America, CES has become the definitive event for the latest technological advances, as well as a showroom for companies to reveal innovative and new products.  
 
The first CES was hosted by New York City over 50 years ago with over 17,500 people in attendance. With five decades of history supporting it, CES continues to be one of the most exciting events of the year. 
 
Interested in attending CES yourself? Or, do you plan to watch the various livestreams when the event begins? Whatever your preference, we’ve created the definitive guide for what to expect from CES.  

Keep an Eye on AI 

Ever since ChatGPT rocked the world with its release in November 2022, AI has become a cultural phenomenon. Infiltrating a multitude of industries, many professionals have now found themselves exploring a workflow tightly bound with artificial intelligence.  
 
Nvidia has announced one of its focus areas for CES 2024 will be generative AI, a type of artificial intelligence that involves generating text, images, and data combined with machine learning.  
 
Amazon, too, will be part of the AI discussion, having shared that their own Robert Boetticher will be presenting on “Cracking the Smart Car”. Boetticher is currently the Global Technical Director for Automotive & Manufacturing at Amazon.  
 
Other speakers at CES will include a presentation from LG’s CEO Cho Joo-wan on the theme of “Reinvent your future”, centered around the company’s new 2024 vision of embracing AI with home appliances. 
 
Notably, ChatGPT’s founding company OpenAI will not be presenting at the event. This is because OpenAI has hosted its own event this past November, known as DevDay.  
 
Even so, expect a majority of companies participating to share their plans for the integration of AI with their own products and services. Many of these are customer facing products, like health-promoting smart watches that have only expanded their capabilities with time.  
 
More interestingly, expect to see an expanded number of household items that utilize artificial intelligence. SeerGrills, for example, has been recognized as an honoree for the CES 2024 Innovation Awards. Their appliance Perfecta is being recognized as the world’s “first AI-powered grill”. In addition to this, other popular companies will be unveiling their latest AI-driven technologies that complement and support other household products.  
 
Intel has announced it will be showcasing its latest chipset, Meteor Lake, which they began selling this past December. According to Intel, their Meteor Lake chipset has a dedicated AI processor component, a first for their product line. This component – known as the Neural Processing Unit, or NPU – will utilize AI to better handle workloads in an efficient manner.  
 
Expect this chipset to be mentioned hand in hand with a number of showcased product lines, like the latest laptops from computer maker Dell. All in all, AI will be a central theme of CES 2024, and attendees and viewers both should expect to see this a primary focus for nearly every mainstream company participating in the expo.  

Virtual Reality’s Popularity Still in Question  

Also present at CES 2024 will be a number of exhibitions and events centered around Virtual Reality. Interestingly, VR has lost some steam recently, after a 2020 year that saw nearly one in five people using a VR device.  
 
CNBC.com reported this past December that “VR headsets and reality glasses [have] plummeted nearly 40%.” This is especially interested considering that Meta’s “Metaverse” has at its core relied on the virtual reality becoming mainstream.  
  
With this, one event at CES 2024 will be “Augmented & Virtual Reality in the Creator Ecosystem”, where a representative from Meta will be speaking in collaboration with Unity, a video game software company. Less known contributors to VR will be Brelyon, a computer hardware manufacturer originating from MIT.  

According to BusinessWire, Brelyon will be aiming to shake up the AR/VR industry with their first-ever headset free virtual monitor. While this is an exciting announcement, it is yet to be determined if products like this one will be enough to reinvigorate what appears to be a dwindling VR industry.  

Gamers Welcome Next Gen GPUs 

One of the most highly anticipated showcases of CES will be Nvidia’s purported announcement of their new “Super 4000” GPUs. Nvidia’s flagship GPU, the RTX 4090, released in October of 2022 with a $1599 price tag, slightly higher than the RTX 3090 price tag of $1499 which was released two years prior in 2020. 
 
Nvidia has been a source of hot debate in recent years, considering their 3090 price was a significant increase in their previous generation, which saw a RTX 2080 price tag of $799. Video producers and gamers alike who utilize the popular GPU in their computers have challenged AMD to create rival cards with a more sensible price tag. Even so, Nvidia’s RTX 4090 has remained at the top, with Tom’s Hardware calling it the Queen of the Castle in their review of it.  
 
As it stands, it is the most reliable GPU capable of 4K gaming as well as being incredibly fast at video production and editing for content creators. What will the Super 4000 cards bring to the table?  
 
Rumors suggest an increase in the 4070’s virtual ram, or VRAM, from 12gb to 16gb – to rival AMD’s Radeon RX 7000 series. Additionally, while the past two generations have seen significant price increases, the newest cards may actually be comparatively cheaper when it comes to launch prices. It’s yet to be determined, though with Nvidia already with a sizable market lead, the Super 4000 series is looking to only lengthen that lead, with AMD likely to hold any competing announcements for later in 2024.  

 
In brief 

While the event itself only lasts a few days, there will be a number of write-ups, blogs, and news articles that cover the highlights of the events – including any major announcements. We can expect a number of mainstream brands, from Nvidia to Samsung to LG and more, to announce their newest flagship products for 2024.