Newsletter

CES 2025 unleashed AI overload: Do we really need it in everything?

CES 2025 has been a big week of gadget announcements and product updates, many of which include AI. But we should stop and ask ourselves if this is what we really want.

Nick Broughall

Jan 10, 2025 • 12 min read

Photo by David Lusvardi / Unsplash

It's not really a surprise that one of the big trends of CES this year was AI. Artificial Intelligence was everywhere, with companies like Samsung and LG doubling down on the buzzword.

Samsung rebranded its AI families to "Vision AI" for its TVs and "Home AI" for its appliances, LG rebranded its iconic TV "Magic remote" to an "AI remote" and laptop brands rolled out dozens of CoPilot+ laptops.

CES isn't much of a two-way conversation (particularly when you're sitting at your desk in Sydney), but one question I didn't see anyone really answer is "why?"

Is there actual demand for AI to be in everything? Do people really want a fridge that can order food when it's running low?

I can understand using machine learning to improve algorithms for things like upscaling or better home mapping with a robot vacuum. But who in their right mind wants Microsoft's CoPilot running on their TV? I don't even want it on my laptop.

The hardest thing for me to swallow about this AI push is that as consumers, we're not really being given a choice. If you want a great new TV, you have to accept that there is going to be some level of AI running things. If you want a new laptop without AI, your options are practically non-existent.

So where does this leave us? Are we heading toward a future where every device is "smart" by default, whether we like it or not? Or will it all just fizzle out once the hype dies down?

I hope it's the latter, but for now, it feels like we're being sold solutions to problems that aren't actually problems at all.

This week in tech

I didn't even make it to Vegas this year, but I still found CES to be massively overwhelming. There was so much news to cover, I only managed to write about a small fraction of it.

Still there was some really interesting stuff announced over the week:

Don’t like Apple Intelligence? Here’s how to switch it off

The good news for Apple customers is that it’s easy to switch off Apple Intelligence. Here’s how to do it.

BTTR ReviewsNick Broughall

This week's reviews

With all the news from CES, there wasn't a lot of time for reviewing, but I did manage to write up the espresso Display 15, which is an awesome portable monitor.

By taking out the touch controls from the 15 Touch you maybe don't need, espresso shaved $250 off the RRP, despite the visual aspect of the monitor being practically identical.

It's great value and a great product.

Thanks for reading

That's it for this week's roundup for free BTTR members. BTTR is funded by its members, and if you upgrade to the paid tier (from just $10 a month), you'll get access to the rest of this week's newsletter, which includes:

A collection of the best tech news of the week (with some commentary from yours truly)
A preview of next week's product reviews

You'll also get ad-free access to the website, while supporting indie Aussie media.

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this week's newsletter, or even some input on what you'd like to see in next week's roundup.

Until next week

Nick @ BTTR

BTTR is better in your inbox

This week in tech

This week's reviews

Thanks for reading