We conducted a brief interview with Rick Kowalski, director of industry analysis and business intelligence at CTA, the organization behind the CES trade show. We talked about this year’s CES theme, the products that stand out, and the companies behind them.
Mr. Kowalski also gave examples of how AI can help solve many issues related to sustainability and more. You can read an overview of the interview below or watch the whole thing in the video above.
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Q: Can you briefly talk about the main themes of this year’s CES?
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
A: This year we partnered with the World Academy of Arts and Sciences to cover technologies that support human well-being. These include things like the right to political freedom, environmental protection and even food.
For example, John Deere is here at CES, which is a company focused on the agricultural sector. So sustainability is a great overall theme this year, and it’s one of the first times we’ve decided to theme CES as a whole.
Q: Are there any brands at CES that you think are particularly focused on sustainability?
A: Yes, these include the previously mentioned John Deere, among others, who are looking for solutions to make food production more sustainable.
We also have a few companies looking at alternative proteins. So by producing proteins, you are taking animals and all other things that are harmful to the environment out of the picture.
I love sustainability-related food technology that focuses on things like how water is used and how to grow crops without using too many pesticides.
Q: What about the products? Did you see any products here at CES that stood out to you?
Mitja Rutnik / Android Authority
A: It’s hard to pick just one but the one I can mention is Nuvilab. It uses AI to let you take a photo of your food and then analyze what’s on your plate and tell you how many calories and nutrients it has. So if you’re on a diet, you can rely on the app for calorie counting instead of doing it yourself.
NuviLab’s technology can also help with sustainability.
This technology has already been applied to restaurants and can help with sustainability. For example, customers can use it to check their plates after eating to see how much food has been wasted. So we can analyze these things and come to different conclusions, like serving smaller portions to waste less food. This is an example of how AI can be used to solve these big problems.
Q: We also saw an interesting product called Eargo that was approved by the FDA. What do you think of your overall hearing?
A: This is truly a breakthrough for hearing technology. Just last year, the FDA issued regulations to allow over-the-counter hearing aids. The old process was to get a prescription and then pay a lot of money for that hearing aid, but now the market is open to all these new technologies.
Eargo has gone through the FDA process, which is usually a major hurdle. Just being able to buy a product like this out and about has millions of people in this country who have hearing loss and have decided not to seek treatment in the past because it’s too expensive.
This is a quick overview of our conversation with Rick Kowalski at CES in Las Vegas. If you want to know more, you can watch the full interview at the top of the page.