Metaverse is out, while AI does the laundry: CES 2026’s biggest tech
The market is jittery with fears of an imminent AI bubble burst, but at the CES tech show in Las Vegas, companies are undeterred in showcasing their newfound AI potential.
But unlike in previous years, the AI on display has little to do with the original buzz around chatbots like ChatGPT or image tools such as Google’s Nano Banana.
The focus now is on AI with real-world implications, and examples are plentiful.
Samsung demonstrated AI that can recognise the laundry you put in a washing machine and select the right programme. LG showcased a humanoid robot that neatly folds dried clothes with the help of AI. Bosch unveiled an AI-controlled hob that cooks steaks like a master chef.
With major real-world implications for mobility, Nvidia chief Jensen Huang shared the chipmaker’s ambitions to use AI to help power a fleet of robotaxis.
Surprise fun from Lego Smart Bricks
The biggest surprise hit, however, avoided the AI buzz completely. Lego unveiled a new interactive Smart Brick, which looks like a standard 2×4 Lego piece but is packed with miniaturised tech, including a battery, sensors for light, acceleration and sound, a speaker and a tiny synthesiser.
The audience was enthusiastic even though the Danish toymaker conspicuously avoided the AI label.
Many scenarios were aimed not at consumers but at industry. Siemens chief Roland Busch opened the show alongside Nvidia’s Huang with a keynote.
Bosch demonstrated a new tool for creating virtual twins of factories and products. Engineers can simulate entire plants in real time, train robots virtually, and solve problems before the real facility is built.
Siemens is also using Nvidia’s new Cosmos platform in its AI products, which understand physical laws. Cosmos is also used in robotics and autonomous vehicles.
Smart glasses with AI
CES is known not only for true innovations. Many exhibitors pick up last year’s successful ideas and try to turn them into business. Right now Meta’s smart Ray-Ban glasses have triggered a gold rush.
Manufacturers, mainly from China, are pursuing different strategies to notch up sales with their “smart glasses”.
Some copy the Meta concept, glasses with an integrated camera and audio AI but no display. That includes the Solos AirGo V2, which is not tied to Meta’s Llama AI. In the companion app, users can choose to talk to ChatGPT, Google Gemini or Claude AI.
Other Meta rivals are trying to upstage the original concept with real displays, offering augmented reality glasses. These overlay digital content such as text, images or 3D objects into the field of view to augment the real world with virtual information.
This category includes the TCL RayNeo Air 4 Pro, which looks almost like ordinary sunglasses but projects a huge virtual display before the user’s eyes.
The metaverse is out (if it was ever really ‘in’)
Not long since it hit peak hype in 2022, the metaverse now barely features in the latest models of smart glasses.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, the world’s biggest metaverse fan, once touted the metaverse as no less than the future of the Internet, promising a digital realm of endless possibilities where people interact as avatars in virtual reality.
Millions of dollars in investment later, hardly anyone is talking about it at CES.
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