Sprawling CES gadgetfest a world stage for AI and its hype

San Francisco, United States: Dreams about the vast potential of artificial intelligence will collide with cold, hard reality as the Consumer Electron...

San Francisco, United States: Dreams about the vast potential of artificial intelligence will collide with cold, hard reality as the Consumer Electronics Show kicks off in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

Science fiction portrays AI as superintelligence that can operate faster and better than people can, and do it autonomously.

However, the technology for now is being put to work at very specialized tasks -- in gadgets that translate languages during conversations, say, or monitor health symptoms, or provide information on people's surroundings through smart glasses.

Even AI being built into humanoid robots remains a work in progress, with human tele-operators overseeing their operation remotely.

"The gap between AI technology hype and customer experience expectations will widen at CES 2026," predicted Forrester principal analyst Thomas Husson.