The TV Became the Heart of the Smart Home at CES 2024
Generative AI also snuck into many of the announcements during the week
As the Consumer Electronics Show of Las Vegas concludes for 2024 — and as I thought about what to write about for my final column of the trade show — I could not help but notice the increasing prevalence of televisions in the smart home and how generative artificial intelligence, similar to the technology used to power ChatGPT by Silicon Valley start-up OpenAI, wove into each of the announcements alongside powerful systems-on-a-chip and artificial intelligence image processing pipelines. During this year’s show, smart home behemoths such as LG and Samsung — two South Korean conglomerates known for their ventures in the smart home — put AI at the center of their announcements and used their industry-leading popular televisions as catalysts for the technology.
It is a common joke among event-goers that CES is the “show of televisions,” and this year, that trope could not be more true. TCL, Panasonic, and Hisense joined Samsung and LG to bring new televisions that pushed boundaries in display panel technology to the market, while the South Korean giants pushed cutting-edge processors, new AI upscaling features, new software enhancements assisted by AI designed to make life at home easier, and even new smart home robots that are now more fledged out compared to their predecessors. The trade show this year was packed with exciting revelations in the smart home, and many of the announcements — though they might never be released to the public or might be too cost-prohibitive for most buyers — inspired a level of excitement among the crowd previously unseen for mundane Internet-of-Things gadgets.
LG’s ‘Affectionately Intelligent’ AI Brain Manages Responsibility and Innovation
LG led the smart home announcements at CES on Monday, during a press conference held from Las Vegas, announcing its new lineup of organic-LED televisions, transparent OLED display panels, wireless televisions, and a new large language model at the heart of new LG products coming in 2024 — including a new smart home robot powered by generative artificial intelligence.
First, the televisions: The new C4 and G4 line of televisions bring minuscule display panel improvements not worth noting, but the new processor is where the advancements come from. The new processor, found in the new high-end televisions, is called “Alpha 11,” and LG says it is custom-built for AI. The new processor enables image post-processing which LG describes as more realistic and visually pleasing. Film enthusiasts most likely will not enjoy the features, however, as they tamper with the original film, adding effects that may be deemed as “not true to life” by experts, like film directors and cinematographers. The processing pipeline has been entirely redone, according to the company, providing a more processed look that some customers, particularly ones that enjoy bold colors and smoothed frames, might enjoy. The features will be an option for buyers to enable in the setup screen when they first receive their televisions.
The transparent televisions, called the LG Signature OLED T line, are see-through boxes that come in a multitude of sizes that are meant to look more natural in some living spaces. LG’s Signature OLED T televisions also use the company’s “Zero Connect” technology, which first debuted at CES last year, which means that the televisions are wireless. Customers plug input devices, like streaming boxes, into the Zero Connect box’s HDMI ports, and the television itself receives the signal via an antenna at the top of the unit. LG ensures that the technology has no noticeable latency or any downsides in picture quality since the transparent panels are 4K-resolution, high frame rate, high dynamic range, OLED displays. The only downside between the Signature OLED T and the high-end G4 — the former of which is more expensive than the latter — is that the transparent television lacks the Multi-Lens Array technology found in the standard version, which provides better brightness in bright rooms.
The Signature OLED T is powered by the Alpha 11 processor and a new version of webOS, the operating system that runs on LG televisions. It also has a film that is situated behind the transparent OLED panel which can be retracted and erected with a motor to allow users to toggle transparency on and off; the film simply blacks out the rear of the television. From demonstrations given to the press later in the week, the televisions seem to have no downgrades in picture quality compared to the non-transparent versions, though the transparency effect was oddly distracting, in my opinion. I do not understand the benefit of having a transparent television: Most people hide wires or wall mounts behind their televisions, and that is not particularly exciting or beautiful imagery. I imagine the Signature OLED T is not for most people, but rather is for customers who might situate their televisions in the middle of a room, say on a counter or island, and want to display pieces of art or neat animations on the OLED screen throughout the day. In other words, the television would act as an incredibly overpriced picture frame.
The headlining announcement from LG’s hour-long press conference on Monday was the company’s initiatives in AI. Company presenters called LG’s AI “affectionate intelligence,” describing three pillars that make up the foundation of the technology: “real-time life intelligence,” “orchestrated intelligence,” and “responsible intelligence.” Real-time life intelligence involves using private data to customize the experience for each LG customer; orchestrated intelligence means that all LG devices will share data amongst themselves to provide a seamless experience between products; and responsible intelligence is LG’s way of assuring customers that its efforts are being crafted carefully, ensuring AI development remains transparent and focused on helping users. LG is implementing so-called “affectionate intelligence” into its products with an LLM the company calls the “LG Brain,” and it began its announcements with a new chatbot experience called “ThinQ Up 2.0,” referring to LG’s ThinQ smart home service.
ThinQ Up 2.0 is a chatbot-like interface that LG says will appear when someone buys a new LG smart home product. The software will ask customers to answer a couple of questions for the AI to determine the user’s needs. Together, the responses will be used to “tailor personalized AI for users’ preferences,” said the company, or in other words, to power “real-time life intelligence.” The company did not elaborate further on how the data might be used to provide custom experiences.
That was not all: LG also announced a 3D Map feature for users’ smart home-connected devices, as well as an “open application programming interface” for developers to bring their products to the LG Brain, developing new helpful integrations for end users. The company did not further elaborate on what the API might entail. The crème de la crème of the conference, however, was the introduction of LG’s new smart home robot, which apparently does not have a name; William Cho, LG Electronics’ U.S. chief executive, referred to it as a “Smart Home AI Agent” on stage. The robot uses the LG Brain generative AI technology and operates through the ThinQ platform, following its owners through the home and assisting with various tasks that it can perform from the floor. The robot has facial recognition abilities to tailor responses to different users, pet monitoring abilities, and alert systems to remind users to take medications — and the device can even make emergency calls. The gadget is part of LG’s “Zero Labor Home” product initiative, using the LG Brain’s “orchestrated intelligence” pillar to connect all of a user’s smart home devices for a more helpful experience.
The Smart Home AI Agent robot is straight from a science-fiction movie, following users around and acting as a security guard when out of the house. It is just one of the many innovations — if you will call them that — found at CES this year bridging generative AI software with intelligent, capable hardware. Smart home robots have existed for years — the most popular ones being robot vacuums — but these robots are supercharged with genuine intelligence and a knowledge base of practically the entire internet. On top of that, the new devices can connect with other smart home gadgets, providing an unparalleled connected experience unlike one we have ever seen before. These hardware products — like the ones LG announced at CES — are the limbs to upcoming software ecosystems that will enrich people’s lives, but that also have the potential to cause catastrophic harm to human civilization, some pundits say. Without openness, transparency, and reliability, customers will not have any reason to trust these massive technology corporations with their private data, nor these AI assistants that have the potential to send the world into ruins. It will be interesting to see how these companies fulfill their promises of data security and responsibility, and how the products are received in the market.
Samsung is Keen on an AI-Powered Future
Ahead of Samsung’s Monday press conference held from Las Vegas, the company — as one of the founding members of the Home Connectivity Alliance, an organization that focuses on developing interoperable, open standards for smart home technology — announced a new Energy Management Interface specification for other members of the HCA to adopt that allows smart home appliances made by different manufacturers to gather data from the energy grid to determine the best, most energy-efficient times to run appliances. The function, called “demand response,” is a crucial component of the specification and uses AI models to calculate times when energy costs are at their lowest in the day and when the grid is running on cleaner, or more renewable, sources of energy. The Energy Management Specification will be adopted by members of the HCA beginning later this year, said the organization in its press release. It is one of the many ways Samsung plans to use AI for good, saving users time and money while helping the environment.
The company, during its press conference held later in the day, announced new privacy protections as part of Samsung Knox, the device maker’s hardware security suite, extending the feature to the latest Samsung-branded smart televisions and refrigerators. The company’s Knox Vault feature, which encrypts sensitive data on the device and prevents it from being tampered with if the device is stolen, is also expanding to the Galaxy A-series of mid-range smartphones and expensive Neo LED 8K televisions, said company presenters. The protections were part of the announcement of the new processor that will be found in the company’s 2024 televisions, the NG8 AI Gen3. The name says it all: The processor runs neural networks “eight times faster,” according to the company, and enables the new televisions’ AI upscaling and motion-enhancing features, akin to LG’s software additions discussed earlier.
The processor upgrade supports the new software features Samsung is adding to Tizen, the operating system that Samsung smart televisions run: Samsung Daily Plus and Samsung Now Plus. Daily Plus is the new hub for all of Samsung’s services and various offerings, including telehealth doctor’s appointments, Samsung Health, Samsung Food, and more. The hub also integrates SmartThings devices for easy access, making the television the center of the smart home. Now Plus, as the name suggests, is a service that curates live, personalized information based on “contextual understanding,” as the company described. It is unclear what specific information the software will use and curate, but presenters did say it was powered by generative AI. Samsung Now Plus also runs exclusively on the company’s televisions, and can even be activated while the TV is powered off by voice hot word. The new software features are an example of how Samsung is prioritizing the television as the heart of its SmartThings platform, and how it is integrating generative AI into the smart home in ways that are personalized and that aim to be helpful in situations where a user might not expect generative AI to be.
Samsung also announced and touted a 150-inch 8K-resolution laser projector, too, alongside the new televisions. The new projector is the first of its kind since the signal is transmitted wirelessly, similar to LG’s “Zero Connect” technology. However, Samsung’s projector is 8K, not 4K, which makes the transmission technology even more impressive — or so the company wants you to believe.
More importantly, and perhaps more noteworthily, the company announced that it is bringing generative AI to practically every product line it offers. For example, Samsung smart refrigerators will now be able to use the camera to read expiration dates to remind users to order new items and discard old ones, and the refrigerators will be able to categorize foods automatically to recommend recipes and ingredient replacements via the company’s Samsung Food meal tracker phone application. Samsung calls this technology “AI Vision Inside.” Also, smart Samsung washing machines and dryers will use cameras and sensors to detect the types and colors of fabrics in the wash to tailor the wash cycle’s settings to those materials. Finally, the company announced a new robot vacuum which uses generative AI and on-device sensors to detect the type of flooring it is on with even more accuracy than previous models of the robot. All of the products integrate via the “SmartThings” smart home software developed by Samsung.
Samsung also announced the second generation of its smart home robot companion, Ballie, which was first announced four years ago at CES 2020. The new robot, as the name suggests, is shaped like a sphere, and rolls around the floor with a screen to display cute animations. The device comes in a plethora of fun colorways, now, and has a projector at the top to display content on walls of the home. The idea, according to Samsung, is that the robot acts as a portable smart home controller for easy access to all of the company’s SmartThings services, allowing users to order groceries, perform tasks, and watch video all from one device. Ballie has an AI voice assistant, too, powered by Samsung’s generative AI technology, and the assistant is the robot’s main method of interaction, similar to Amazon’s Astro or LG’s robot also debuted at CES.
Every one of the new features, devices, or integrations with AI spells out a broader theme from Samsung’s keynote address this year: The company is heavily investing in generative AI to bring new, connected, personalized experiences to users. Sometimes, the “AI-ness” can be nauseating; it is just too much artificial intelligence, even in products that I do not think would benefit heavily from the novel technology. AI is also cause for privacy concerns, and Samsung did not elaborate on whether this sensitive user data is being transmitted over the internet to the cloud or if the processing is happening on-device. (I surmise it is most likely a combination of both, depending on the product and feature.) If data is sent to servers, the company has not explained if the features can be turned off, to what extent data sharing can be controlled, and how data is encrypted. “Samsung Knox” might be sufficient, but like many CES announcements, we have truly no clue.
Plentiful TVs
TCL, the Chinese display maker; Hisense, another Chinese television manufacturer; and Panasonic, the well-known Japanese electronics company all announced new televisions at CES this year, as usual. Most were ordinary, relatively uninteresting updates, but some were noteworthy.
TCL’s largest announcement was its 115-inch mini-LED quantum-dot OLED television, its first entrance into the ultra-premium television market. TCL said during its press conference that the display has 20,000 dimming zones, an impressive number for a company like TCL, mainly known for its lower-end offerings. Those lower-end models also were refreshed during the show this week, namely the Q6 Pro, which features improved local dimming and an increase in brightness. The ultra low-end televisions, which are called the “S-line,” are also brighter and include speedier processors for image signaling. None of the new products have public prices or availability dates.
Hisense mainly highlighted its new laser projectors and processors to assist with AI upscaling. Hisense touted one of the new projectors — that projects a 4K image — as “one of the world’s smallest projectors,” while the other model projects in 8K, reaches 2,000 nits of peak brightness, and has a high contrast ratio, claims the company. The processor, called “Hi-View Engine X,” however, powers the ULED X television, Hisense’s flagship offering. The ULED X reaches up to 10,000 nits of peak brightness when viewing HDR content, and is enabled by 40,000 local dimming zones. The display panel is optimized by the AI processor and uses mini-LED technology with 16-bit backlighting control.
Panasonic announced a new partnership with Amazon to bring the company’s Fire TV software to Panasonic televisions, replacing the current Panasonic-made software. The new flagship television model, the Z95A, has higher brightness levels, a new processor — as do its siblings in the lineup to power the Amazon Fire TV software — and now a refresh rate of 144 hertz, optimal for gaming. The Amazon-made software also has a custom smart home control panel and dashboard for quick monitoring of Alexa-connected devices.
All of the new televisions added artificial intelligence, mainly in the processors, to enable faster, more true-to-life post-processing.
CES is typically filled with many television and smart home appliance announcements, and this year was no exception. But as I highlighted broadly throughout my CES coverage this year, generative AI took center stage in all of the press conferences, weaving itself into all of the new technologies. It will be interesting to see how this technology — which is now being added to hardware products rather than staying strictly as a software feature — will affect the market going forward, and if consumers will remain interested in it. CES is always a trade show that previews tech conglomerates’ ideas of the future, which do not always depict the true future of technology. The ideas and technologies shown off this year are just a preview of what the future holds — and it’s an exciting time.
This article is part of my CES 2024 coverage.
Correction, 01/11/24 11:56 p.m.: A previous version of this article referred to LG’s smart home software as “ThingQ.” The service is called “ThinQ,” as stated in other parts of the article. I regret the error.
