National Institute of Standards and Technology Director Dr. Laurie Locascio, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards & Technology, opened a CES discussion on the U.S. Cyber Trust Mark for certification of IoT devices by highlighting “how government and industry can work together to make IoT devices safe and secure — and drive U.S. innovation and productiveness.” “We believe in the power of partnership,” she noted, listing the Consumer Technology Association as an important partner along with academia and consumers in “fostering an environment that enables innovation.” She said this work led to the FCC’s proposal for a Cyber Mark Trust labeling program. Read more

Musician will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas — who is also a noted technologist, entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist — discussed his work with Mercedes-AMG, why he attends the CES conference each year in Las Vegas, and his vision of the future. In 2022 he was asked by Mercedes to reimagine a vehicle. He loves pattern-matching, he said, and seeing how things align. After developing ideas with his team and auctioning off the working prototype WILL.I.AMG to raise funds for his inner-city education philanthropy, he went back to Mercedes with a simple but powerful pitch with a focus on audio. Read more

Introduced by Consumer Technology Association VP of Regulatory Affairs David Grossman, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf took the CES stage with interviewer Lisa Dwyer, a partner at international law firm King & Spalding. Califf noted the monumental differences in technology that have taken place between his first stint at the Food & Drug Administration in 2015 and today. “The changes are so dramatic, it’s hard to characterize them,” he said. “We’re moving into a different world.” He’s excited about “the hundreds of products with AI” that can bring so much good to the market but also noted the potential harms. Read more

Dr. Fei-Fei Li, Stanford professor and co-director of Stanford HAI (Human-Centered AI), and Andrew Ng, venture capitalist and managing general partner at Palo Alto-based AI Fund discussed the current state and expected near-term developments in artificial intelligence. As a general purpose technology, AI development will both deepen, as private sector LLMs are developed for industry-specific needs, and broaden, as open source public sector LLMs emerge to address broad societal problems. Expect exciting advances in image models — what Li calls “pixel space.” When implementing AI, think about teams rather than individuals, and think about tasks rather than jobs. Read more

Lindsey Slaby of brand strategy consultancy Sunday Dinner opened a CES panel discussion on storytelling by noting Google’s phase-out of third-party cookies in 2024. Sophie Bambuck, CMO of outdoor performance clothing and gear company The North Face, admitted that she’s “a little scared.” “But it’s getting me excited about what this means for creative work,” she added. “What this most likely means is that we’re going to have to go back to basics to find ways of engaging so people will want to connect to your brand.” Panelists told tales of innovative ways they related organic stories to connect with customers. Read more