AI in Your Gadgets: A Necessary Addition or Just Hype?

This year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas showcased a plethora of AI-powered products designed to enhance consumers’ daily lives. Yet, amid these many new launches, a crucial question emerges: do we actually need AI in our gadgets? This article delves into some of the more unique new AI product releases, aiming to assess whether AI integration in everyday gadgets is a necessity or merely a fleeting trend.

Good to know: AI can help you with tasks, like generating mind maps.

The Growing Reach of AI in 2024

While AI has been integrated into smart speakers, fitness trackers, and smartwatches for quite some time, it has recently also made its way into some unexpectedly diverse niches, as we can see from the surprises introduced at CES this year.

Sleeping Pillows

The Motion Pillow is a sleep aid that uses AI to reduce snoring activity. When the pillow detects snoring, it slowly inflates the built-in airbags to raise the sleeper’s head, assisting in opening the airways and reducing snoring.

There’s also an accompanying mobile app that helps track snoring time, airbag operation time, sleep score, sleep time, and more.

Smart Mattresses

If a smart pillow is not enough to get a good night’s sleep, what about a smart mattress? The DeRucci mattress detects subtle changes in your body’s temperature, sleep position, and heart rate, using its 23 embedded sensors.

A layer of responsive airbags dynamically adjusts to your movements, providing customized support for your spine and overall comfort. The AI technology inside continuously analyzes your sleep patterns and adjusts the mattress accordingly to optimize your sleep experience.

Stress Reducers

Moonbird is a stress-relieving device that also employs AI. It’s a soft, cushiony gadget that you can place in your hand and squeeze for relief.

It teaches a series of breathing exercises by expanding when you’re meant to breathe in and contracting when you should breathe out. The device also features a sensor that can monitor your heart rate.

Smartphone Companions

AI assistants in smartphones have been around for a while, but what about an AI-powered smartphone companion? The Rabbit R1 wants to become your assistant (wait, didn’t you already have one?) or your pocket companion, if you prefer that.

Once you speak your requests, the Rabbit device will take over and select/operate your apps. For instance, you can ask the gadget to order you a ride and play your favorite song while you wait.

Note: the Rabbit R1 is also one of our favorite CES 2024 gadgets.

Smart Mirrors

This year, multiple manufacturers are incorporating AI into mirror devices. For instance, the Bmind Smart Mirror, according to the company, is the first AI-powered smart mirror for mental wellness. Equipped with generative AI, the mirror can detect changes in your mood and suggest personalized activities for improving it, such as guided meditation sessions, self-affirmation exercises, and therapy plans.

Unveiled by a different company, the Anura MagicMirror is a different type of smart mirror that utilizes facial blood flow analysis and vital sign monitoring, including blood pressure, to assess heart disease risk.

Manicuring

Believe it or not, AI is now also powering manicuring devices. If you don’t feel like letting a stranger do your nails, then you’re in luck.

You can think of the Nimble Beauty as an at-home nail salon. All you have to do is insert your hand and press a button to start the process.

Smart Toothbrushes

AI toothbrushes are also a thing. Introducing the Oclean X Ultra S, which leverages AI to provide feedback on your brushing technique in real-time.

The device also has Wi-Fi connectivity to pair it with your home network, as well as Bluetooth.

These are by no means the only AI-powered gadgets that were launched at CES 2024. The list is a lot more extensive and also includes AI vacuums, washing machines, fridges, dog collars, exercise devices, lamps, and more.

Tip: need to add an AI chatbot to your website? We have compiled the best options for that.

AI in Gadgets – Is It a Must?

While AI isn’t a magic wand, it was definitely the magic word at CES 2024, where countless products harnessing its astounding powers saw the light of day. AI has seemingly found its way into a massive array of everyday products, spanning toothbrushes, pillows, mattresses, mirrors, washing machines, vacuums, and more. No product category appears to be too mundane to receive an innovative AI upgrade these days.

The arrival of ChatGPT and other similar tools has sparked a substantial interest in AI. But when most people use the term “AI” nowadays, they typically refer to generative AI, the type that drives technologies like ChatGPT. OpenAI’s offering uses a large language model (LLM) to operate. This is a form of AI that has been trained on a massive dataset of text and code to be able to generate text, translate languages, write creative content, or answer questions in an informative way.

ChatGPT’s meteoric rise is probably what is making manufacturers race to add some kind of AI to their products, likely due to pressure from their investors and boards.

But generative AI is not the same AI that’s powering gadgets like smart mirrors, toothbrushes, or pillows. This type operates on machine learning algorithms to analyze your behavior and preferences to tailor the gadget’s responses and features accordingly. But in today’s landscape, these terms are often used interchangeably.

In light of the increasing number of vague AI claims, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has published a public advisory urging companies to maintain clarity and accuracy in their AI-related marketing.

The governmental agency recognizes that AI is an “ambiguous term with many possible definitions” that holds substantial marketing appeal. Unfortunately, buzzwords like “AI” can get thrown around in marketing, sometimes misleadingly. It’s important to be critical and ask whether products labeled as “AI-powered” actually use the technology, and if so, how effectively.

FYI: AI is expected to revolutionize the gaming industry.

A Fun Experiment

Take, for instance, the electric Oclean toothbrush, which uses a proprietary smart chip and AI bone conduction tech to offer instructions on how to improve your brushing technique. The device informs you about aspects, such as excessive pressure application or disproportionate time spent on one side of your mouth. All this info is audible only to you via bone conduction tech. A fundamental question arises: is owning such a gadget genuinely essential to your well-being? What’s more, can it ever substitute the guidance you would receive from a dentist? It seems unlikely.

To be clear, I’m not arguing here that these AI gadgets don’t offer an interesting proposition, and I admit that it could be fun to test some of them. But do they provide any revolutionary features that you couldn’t do without? Something that would radically improve your life? Not really.

For instance, I don’t really need a smart mirror to detect my moods, I’m pretty apt at checking my internal barometer myself, and over the years I’ve worked to develop my own set of coping techniques, such as taking time-outs for short meditation sessions.

Note: this article explains why you shouldn’t use AI tools like ChatGPT for professional writing tasks.

Furthermore, companies frequently market products that incorporate new AI technologies as “innovative,” leading to them carrying substantial price tags. Case in point: the Motion anti-snoring pillow will set you back $699.

Keep in mind, though, that the promised groundbreaking features of some AI devices may not always live up to the hype and could lead to disappointment. On top of that, reliance on AI for certain tasks may limit your ability to develop traditional advice or seek advice from human experts. Ultimately, the novelty of AI gadgets may wear off, and you may be left with expensive, underutilized devices that fail to deliver sustained value over time.

I, for one, will probably continue to stick with my “dumb” pillow, toothbrush, or mirror, at least for the time being, and I think you should too.

Image credit: Pexels

Alexandra is passionate about mobile tech and can be often found fiddling with a smartphone from some obscure company. She kick-started her career in tech journalism in 2013, after working a few years as a middle-school teacher. Constantly driven by curiosity, Alexandra likes to know how things work and to share that knowledge with everyone.