-Welcome to Nevada Week.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon, joining you from CES 2025.

And this is a flying motorcycle.

Its max flight time is about 40 minutes, which is a little bit longer than this show.

Ahead, we're going to hear from Maria Silva, who tells us about efforts to get more women in technology, but we begin by speaking with long-time CES Spokeswoman and Las Vegas Native Allie Fried.

Artificial intelligence is again the theme of this year's CES.

And for those who would say, Again?

What would you say?

(Allie Fried) I would say artificial intelligence, for sure, is at CES 2025 again.

We've seen it over the last few years creeping into different exhibitors, different products, different industries.

2025 is the year where you cannot get away from AI.

It's absolutely everywhere.

We've got more than 2.5 million net square feet of exhibit space, and everywhere you turn, you're going to see it.

You're going to see it in generative AI.

You're going to see it in iteractive AI.

You're going to also see a lot of physical AI.

I don't know if you've heard about the Indy Autonomous Challenge, but those are race cars.

There's a race happening out at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Thursday.

They're going to have-- it's the first time ever, four autonomous race cars will be competing against each other at the speedway, completely driven by AI drivers.

It's wild.

It's crazy, and they're testing them at speeds up to 190 miles per hour, because they really want to see.

They want to push the limits of what physical AI can do.

And so then that trickles down into the cars that one day, you know, you and I will be driving or we're not driving, I guess I can say.

-Right, will not be driving.

-Will not be driving, will be driving us.

-So one difference that my producer has at least noticed between this year and last year is a drive toward, well, at least LG saying "affectionate intelligence for AI."

Samsung has a campaign, "AI for all."

-Right.

-What does this indicate to you, this kind of approach?

-So I think what we're seeing is AI where it's face to face with us as people.

Studies and research have shown that we respond better when we feel like we're talking to something that we can relate to.

So if we're seeing a facial expression, if we're seeing a movement that feels human, we connect more with that object.

So we're seeing a lot of companies that have, again, this kind of like physical display.

They want us to feel like we're talking to something that we relate to, not a human.

I was telling you earlier, I was blessed to interact with a baby AI panda this morning.

And it's a real life-size baby panda, but that has been modeled completely accurately for what, I think it was like, an eight-month-old panda looks like.

Their facial features, exactly what a baby panda does-- their paws, their claws, their little like nose movement.

And I think that goes to that affectionate piece.

It's an opportunity for you to interact with a baby wild animal.

That's never going to happen in real life, but you get that love, that feeling, that experience.

Again, it's creating experiences that we just we wouldn't have without that technology.

-Is that something that's going to be sold to people or rented, an experience type of pay, a fee?

-Yes, I think that's the business model where we can't get you up to the real one, but you can see-- I think there was some therapy implications, too, for kids, you know, animals and just kind of like feeling like they could talk to the baby panda and kind of connect if they were having trouble connecting with friends or things like that.

-We also talked about a more practical application of this affectionate AI, and that was advancements in robotic vacuums.

-Yes, yes.

So yeah, this exactly goes to the progression piece.

So robotic vacuums have been around for a while.

You know, they clean the floor.

But I don't know if yours are anything like mine.

They're always getting stuck on something.

There's always-- I have three kids, three dogs.

My floor is never clean.

The vacuums that are coming out now are having arms built into them.

They're having extension pieces available to actually detect object interference, pick those things up, move them out of the way, so that they can continue cleaning.

I actually saw one that was capable of-- there was all these blocks on the floor.

Imagine your kid makes a mess.

It's stacking the blocks up into the corner and then keeps going.

I've also seen, just this morning, the world's first smart mop.

So it automatically detects liquids on your floor and starts itself.

So you no longer have to even be aware that the mess has been made.

It's sensing what's happening on your floor, it detects a spill, it gets into action, cleans it up before you even know it was there.

-Wow!

I think our viewers would like to know that you are a Las Vegas native.

-I am.

I was born and raised here, and it is like something I have the deepest pride for.

I love this city, and I miss it terribly now that I live on the East Coast.

-And I bring that up because-- I wanted to verify that first, and so I looked at your LinkedIn, and you wrote a tremendous post.

I guess it was the first day of CES, and you said, "I was reminded why CES is so much more than just a conference.

It's a place where magic happens."

What was your experience?

-I had-- I was on cloud nine all day yesterday.

I got a text message from my old 5th grade teacher.

-Here in Las Vegas?

-Here in Las Vegas, Marion Earl Elementary School, Miss Marie Branchini.

And her brother-- she actually has a brother and sister, both with Down syndrome.

And Johnny and Leah, I've just, I've known them literally since 5th grade, because we were very close with Miss Branchini.

And her son was friends with my brother.

And she said, Hey, we're at a conference today where we're getting exposed to technology for people with disabilities.

She's like, It's at the Venetian.

Is this connected into CES at all?

She knows I've worked for the show for 20 years.

And I was like-- first of all, I was like, Miss Branchini, hi!

Also, Yes, that is CES.

Where can I meet you?

And turns out that her brother Johnny had been invited through the CTA Foundation, which is a foundation dedicated to helping startup companies working on technology for those, the aging population and those with disabilities have equitable access to technology.

And I ran over there as fast as I could.

Three shuttles later, and it was a three-hour session where they were exposed to all kinds of technologies that they didn't know existed.

And Miss Branchini was in tears as she was saying, you know, Every single thing I saw here today would dramatically change not only Johnny's life, but my life too, as his caregiver.

And so it was just a day of a lot of tears and a lot of connection.

And it's so true, CES is a huge show.

You know, we've got close to 140,000 people we're anticipating here this week, but it is such a small-knit community.

You know, people come year after year, and it truly does feel like a reunion.

And then when you get these bonus surprises of, you know, your outside world colliding in, it was just, it was an incredible day for me.

-Was there a particular product that stood out to them?

-A digital organizer for all medical files, because Johnny has been part of Opportunity Village for years, which he loves, he loves, but there's-- he has all kinds of medical records and doctors appointments, and they need this for that, and it's just a real difficult situation to try to keep everything together, organized for the doctor.

She's got her binders, but it was an app that could organize, sort, search every piece of medical history that you can then turn over to whatever medical system you're working with, whatever doctor you're working with, and you've got the full and complete medical history of that person.

So that is what just really stood out to her.

-You also told me about a cane.

-I did.

So that was something that Johnny, you know-- he has Down syndrome and, unfortunately, has lost his sight completely because of it.

So he uses a walking stick.

And there was a smart cane that he saw yesterday.

So as you're using it, it has the ability to talk to you through AI.

So you know, it's letting you know when you've got an obstacle coming up or when there's a curb, but it also tells you what you're walking by.

You know, You're walking by a green tree, you're walking by a coffee shop, you're walking by CVS, you know, because it's, it's one thing for safety, and for sure we need to keep him and everyone else safe, but you do lose that sense of surrounding when you can't see.

And so this smart cane was bringing that sense of surrounding through audio.

And he was really, really excited about it.

-Wow!

-Yeah, I know.

It's like goosebumps.

It's goosebumps stuff.

-Yes.

And you were a journalist under Miss Branchini, correct?

-I was.

So she ran our school newspaper in 5th grade.

And that is what truly started my love for journalism and communications.

I ended up being the "Ask Allie" advice column.

Students could submit their life problems.

And you know, I came in with my 5th grade advice.

But she was just, she was incredible.

She is someone who I have looked up to since I was 10 years old and continue to look up to her.

Just how she teaches her kids in her classroom, I mean, I just felt like one of her own.

And then just seeing her now at this stage of life, being a caregiver for her brother and sister, I've never truly seen anyone with a heart as giving, and it just it takes nothing away from her.

She is just so happy in everything that she gives.

It just, she's an incredible human.

Miss Branchini, I love you.

-So then, what would Allie's advice be for someone who doesn't feel they know much about AI or who is a little bit scared of AI?

-Yeah, no, it is.

You know, I think this conference is all people in the industry, so we kind of know and understand it, but everyone doesn't feel this way.

And some people feel like maybe we are getting taken over by this technology.

I would say this: AI and robotic learning and machine learning, it is all designed to help us as people.

And so kind of a mega trend, I would say, is this digital coexistence that we're seeing.

And it's, How can we use technology to make our lives easier, better, more effective, more efficient so that we can be humans and we can elevate what we do best, which is connections and emotions and creativity and hard decision making, trade offs, stuff like that.

AI is just not there yet.

So I would say, don't be afraid, but see how you can embrace it, because I don't see AI going away.

And so whether you're a consumer, whether you're a manufacturer, whether you're a retailer, if you are not incorporating AI in some way, I think you are going to be left behind.

-Okay.

Last thing.

So many of the exhibitors here, at least a quarter of the exhibitors here, are from China, and so there is some concern about the proposed tariffs that the incoming President, President Donald Trump, has proposed.

-Yes.

-Whether he actually implements them has yet to be seen.

And so the CEO of CTA, Gary Shapiro, wrote, ahead of this conference, "We expect the Trump administration to take a much more pro business approach that favors innovation."

He went on to say, "If we go forward with the proposals that the President-Elect has indicated he may put in place, there would be severe impacts on the prosperity of the U.S." He said, "Estimates range of a 30 to 50% price increase for basic products like PCs, cell phones, laptops, tablets, smart watches, and all sorts of different products that consumers get a great value on today."

How significant is it for him to come out and make a statement like this?

-So I would say this: You know, CES is our trade show.

The Consumer Technology Association produces CES.

The Consumer Technology Association represents thousands of technology companies, and we are there to help them advance their businesses in a pro-innovation environment.

So we've got a big policy team dedicated to making sure that the political environment is set up in a way that businesses can thrive and can succeed.

So Gary, I've known Gary for almost 20 years now.

He has always taken a very active role in assessing what incoming administrations are going to look like, in terms of how they affect the membership of CTA.

The fact that he put a statement out like this, I would say, is very on par for where we've been for the last two decades, at least the two decades I've known him.

What does the administration look like?

How is it going to affect our businesses?

And I will say, you know, it's always been that tariffs are taxes, and it's, it's a tax that the consumer is going to feel.

And so that's, that's his stance on it.

And I think, you know, we're going to have to see what happens come January.

-Ahead of this interview, we had a woman approach us from a company who's from China.

I don't want to say what business, because they were a little bit uncomfortable with us asking about their thoughts on the proposed tariffs.

She did say, however, You know what?

When I picked up this client from the airport, that was the first thing he mentioned: How are those tariffs going to impact us?

Have you felt that here at this CES?

-It's definitely-- I would be lying if I said no, that we aren't feeling it.

It is a conversation that's taking place.

It's something that everyone is talking about, but I think that that actually really drives home the point of CES, which is to bring together the business community to talk about, how is this shaping the industry?

We've got people from 150 different countries here to all discuss and figure out, what do we do to make sure we can all thrive?

That's the beauty of this show.

It's that connection piece.

It's how we can advance and move things forward.

So I do actually think, yes, it is a big talking point, but we've got the right minds and the people here to kind of figure out where we want to land as an industry.

-And lastly, can we talk about the basic needs that are being met by technology?

For example, water.

-We're in a desert, aren't we?

Yeah.

So back to kind of to that technology-for-good piece, it is one of the central pillars of CES and CTA is, how can we use technology to improve our lives?

Last year, we actually partnered with the United Nations to declare that access to technology is equally as important as access to food, access to clean water.

It is a fundamental human right, and so that's an area that we've been focused on in our conference programming, highlighting what that means.

We see it out on the show floor.

And it's incredible to see the innovation coming from a lot of companies looking to see, how can we get access to water?

How can we make sure that we're growing crops in places that maybe it's not native?

I saw a product yesterday that was capable of taking rain water and, in near real time, turning it into drinkable water.

And so areas-- I mean, we could do it here, for sure, but like extreme drought where you don't have access to faucets.

It's really, really game changing technology.

-Are there products that people are definitely going to be talking about after they visited here that everyone needs to know about?

-I just love that everyone walks away with an ultimate favorite thing.

Mine so far is a very random thing.

I was telling you, e-printed license plates, where it's e-ink in your license plate that you can change on demand, and so if your car gets stolen or your teenager is driving it when they're not supposed to, you literally can go into the app and change your license plate to say "stolen car" and "my kid is past curfew," things like that, were just so amazing.

That's just like a little tiny example, but everyone walks away with their favorite thing.

Obviously, TVs and displays, we can't get away from that.

That's going to be big.

Everyone's always asking about that.

And we're seeing lots of transparent screens and TVs that can fold.

Glarefree is another big area.

So I think we'll see a lot in the way of, you know, content displays.

But I just, I love knowing what everyone finds interesting, because we all have our own favorite.

-Isn't that kind of funny, though, because TVs were kind of what started CES back in the 60s.

They're still a big product.

-They're still a big product.

Although it took us 15 minutes to get to them, because there's so much more, you know?

And we say today, every technology-- or every company is a technology company.

It is.

So it's a good week ahead.

-Allie Fried, thank you so much for your time.

-Thank you.

This was delightful.