AI hasnt lived up to the hype but can CES 2026 fix that?

Date:
Mon, 05 Jan 2026 12:16:04 +0000

Description:
All I want for CES 2026 is AI that lives up to the hype but Im not holding
my breathAI hasnt lived up to the hype but can CES 2026 fix that?

FULL STORY ======================================================================(Image credit: Future) Were covering all of the latest CES news from the show as it happens. Stick with us for the big stories on everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI. And dont forget to follow us on TikTok for the latest from the CES
show floor!

As I prepare to throw myself into another CES in 2026 , theres simply no escaping AI. Its everywhere... or, at least as far as the tech industry is concerned, it should be everywhere... and tech companies simply will not stop talking about how AI is going to change everything until everyone believes
it.

ChatGPT only landed a couple of years ago, so yes, the technology is new-ish at this point. We may have another couple of years before it fully matures
and evolves into the miracle product that everyone keeps saying it is.

As of right now, though, the marquee use cases weve gotten for AI are
chatbots that are increasingly problematic , whether from a mental health standpoint or as a tool for harrassment and abuse, or image and video generators that are filling social media with so much AI slop that 'Slop' became Merriam-Websters word of the year for 2025 , and not in a
complementary fashion. 'Coming soon' - but when?

The office productivity tools that weve been promised would transform the workplace still seem to be just over the horizon, right along with Elon Musks promise of full, level 5 self-driving for everyones Teslas . The various medical breakthroughs we were supposed to get thanks to AI are likewise still coming soon, while in the meantime appearing to make our doctors less capable of diagnosing diseases they used to be able to spot before they started using AI assistants .

And thats not even touching on the problem of AI hallucinations , a tech industry buzzword that obscures what an AI is actually doing, which is making potentially disastrous errors because, fundamentally, AIs are simply making stuff up that looks like it is likely to be an answer to whatever its prompt or objective happens to be, regardless of whether that solution or answer is correct or not.

News stories of people relying on AI, or even simply using AI, in its current form and meeting with professional embarrassment or possible disaster have been plentiful since these tools went public, with many more reports of these tools being used for some truly horrific ends. If youve read about what Grok has been getting up to over the past month or two , youll know exactly what I mean. (Image credit: Getty Images)

Then theres the widespread concern that these tools, despite their
sloppiness, might still manage to put many millions of people out of work, or the absolutely enormous environmental damage all of this is causing.

I say all of this as I get ready to head into the Las Vegas convention center for yet another CES, because there's only one thing I want to see: an actual, workable, useful, and revolutionary use case that justifies all of this. Its only fair. Its the leading figures of AI who have been evangelizing that we were on the brink of a new Industrial Revolution thanks to this technology, not me. (Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

The world has pumped trillions of dollars into this technology over the past two-plus years, more than enough money and resources to pull something out of the its almost here future and into the present.

Im not asking for it to deliver on all its promises. Im asking it to deliver on one of them with an actual socially or economically beneficial product or some incredible efficiency of an existing process that only an AI can
deliver. Its time for AIs killer app, and if we dont get it in 2026, then we need to start pulling back from what is increasingly looking like a novelty that is growing more stale and expensive by the day.

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/ai-hasnt-lived-up-to-the-hyp e-but-can-ces-2026-fix-that


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