Deepfake detection and ‘truth redefined’: CES 2024 was about putting AI everywhere
Make Honey’s Mark Terry-Lush was on the ground at CES last week in Las Vegas. He kept a list of just some of the bewildering array of AI applications that swept the show this year.
CES in Las Vegas has wrapped for 2024. Unsurprisingly, AI was the talk of the town. / Ihtesham Ismail via Unsplash
Over in Las Vegas, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2024 wrapped last week. While most of the show’s futurama is consumer-focused, it also shows how marketers’ understanding of AI will redefine digital engagement and brand-consumer relationships.
Aside from AI-powered cat flaps, flying cars, personal assistants, transparent TVs, and robots everywhere, here’s a run-down of tech that businesses can use to ride the AI wave.
AI stock photos
The rise of AI last year led quickly to concerns that AI platforms use unlicensed material.
In response, CES keynoters Getty launched an AI-powered stock photo service that uses Nvidia Picasso to open a library of images protected from copyright claims.
Marketers can download and license any generated visual, with legal indemnification, providing an affordable way to safely use generative AI-created visuals.
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The year of the chatbot
The rise of AI chatbots will make products and services even more useful (both online and IRL) as they play a role in both understanding customers and providing meaningful experiences.
As providers like Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft develop more solutions, there may be a land grab as they compete to partner with brands and create bespoke AI assistants.
AI reshapes smart TVs
Global brands and startups unveiled integrations in viewing, advertising, and shopping.
Telly, for example, is a startup that offers a free 4K TV in exchange for increased ad exposure. Its ‘Hey Telly’ voice AI assistant, fueled by ChatGPT, manages TV operations and engages viewers, delivering personalized recommendations.
Samsung, LG, and Hisense added to the revolution, enhancing new TVs with visual and audio optimizations for an entertainment experience. Beyond leisure, these advancements position TVs as workout assistants, offering telehealth tools and serving as central control hubs for smart homes or offices.
Assistants in your hand
Handheld devices such as Humane’s ‘Ai Pin’ and Rabbit Inc’s Rabbit R1 are AI assistants created for an app-free online experience.
The Rabbit R1 promises to navigate all your apps quickly and efficiently so you don’t have to. Chief executive Jesse Lyu said: “We have hundreds of apps on our smartphones with complicated UX designs that don’t talk to each other. As a result, end users are frustrated with their devices and are often getting lost.” He added that the R1 “generates actions on behalf of users to help us get things done.”
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AI creates TV-quality content
Advancements in video creation present an opportunity for advertisers, particularly small and medium-sized businesses.
Waymark, for example showcased a video creation platform called Runway tailored for SME advertisers with a short film titled ‘The Frost’. As production tools simplify and become more accessible, high-quality video content should be available to almost every business.
The emergence of UAIGC
AI tools are evolving user-generated content from UGC to UAIGC: user/artificial intelligence-generated content. Brands and consumers alike will harness prompt-based platforms to reimagine and remix content. How? Who knows. This shift calls for flexibility from brands, allowing for imaginative reinterpretations of a product or imaginary collabs, while maintaining brand integrity.
Personalized content breakthrough
Social is already heavily influenced by AI, but 2024 is set to further unlock tailored content. With AI able to process vast amounts of data, brand communications are becoming more focused.
Graphics specialists Nvidia, for example, showcased AI-generated avatars, signaling a shift towards more personalized and interactive digital realities. Mastercard debuted a pilot AI tool that it describes as “an AI mentor for small businesses”, tailoring help with starting a business from applying for funding, to marketing.
Beware the branded deepfake
With consumers growing ever-warier of deepfakes, scams and phishing, McAfee’s Project Mockingbird, a deepfake detection technology claims to protect consumers from cybercriminals.
While image, video and text detection are high on the agenda, the initial public focus is deep fake audio, which detects whether an audio is truly human, as a way to combat the ‘cloned celebrity’ trend.
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Analytics over followers
It will be the year of the micro-influencer. Rather than follower count or PR value being the selection metric for influencers, brands will shift their focus to more nuanced analytics.
AI-led tools can assess engagement patterns, audience demographics, authenticity, and shared values. And while we can leverage AI to infer patterns in data to offer unique points of view, human critical thinking is vital as results require visual inspection to detect hallucinations, errors, and false insights.
Truth redefined
The glitz of CES masks the underlying issues that will headline at global institutional AI forums and conferences this year.
Consumers are sitting on a vast treasure trove of knowledge through available AI platforms. AI-generated content challenges traditional notions of authenticity, prompting a recalibration of truth in digital content. We can all benefit from AI efficiency and inspired creative productivity, but standards and brand safety will be tested to the max, particularly with a year of elections in the UK, US, and elsewhere.
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