The early story line after two mind-numbing days of press conferences at the CES consumer electronics show this week in Las Vegas can be summed up in five words: It’s all about the data.

From the use of artificial intelligence and deep learning for powering the next generation of home appliances and cars to the imminent rollout of 5G platforms, the processing and application of data will drive consumer tech in 2019. The tech industry is rapidly moving from the Connected Era to the Data Age.

“We are fast approaching a new era of consumer technology,” Steve Koenig, vice president of market research at the Consumer Technology Association, said in a presentation at CES on Sunday. “We can already feel this transition happening. Everywhere you go, data is going to be the common denominator.”

Nvidia bakes in AI

The impact of AI and deep learning in processing data is already being widely felt. When Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Jensen Huang bounded onto the stage for his company’s kickoff presentation on Sunday night, he described how the chipmaker’s latest desktop AI-equipped card – the RTX 2060 – is already changing the look and feel of computer graphics.

In addition to 52 teraflops, or trillion floating-point operations per second, of Tensor Core processing power, the new card has a neural network called a deep learning super sample to infer pixel sets from training data. Graphics are now rendered to the point where reflections of buildings in vehicle windows are automatically added even though the structures may not even be in the frame. The computer just knows.

“This huge neural network has become smarter and smarter and it can predict the best pixel to generate,” Huang explained. “Video games are not just gaming anymore. They are a form of art.”

IBM unveils debate tool

AI was also very much on the mind of IBM Corp. CEO Ginni Rometty, who used her Tuesday morning keynote address to focus on what she termed “Broad AI,” applying AI to multiple tasks across the enterprise.

“Broad AI is going to give us time to market with a lot less training data,” said Rometty, who underscored the advances her company and others have made in moving AI to new levels.

To emphasize her point, IBM unveiled an AI tool called Project Debater on Tuesday. It’s software for a crowdsourced debating platform branded as Speech by Crowd that’s being showcased at the show this week.

The tool collects views for and against a particular topic and synthesizes them into a coherent speech on both sides. Tuesday’s first topic was whether gambling should be banned, a tricky subject given the presence of a large segment of the tech industry in Las Vegas this week.

Talking to tech

Digital assistants are also feeding off data to make device interaction more personalized for the user. As home devices such as Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa listen and learn from mountains of gathered data, the platforms are becoming intuitive and pro-active.

CTA released study data showing that Amazon.com Inc.’s Alexa had already accumulated 60,000 skills for use in over 20,000 compatible devices, and Lesley Rohrbaugh, CTA’s director of market research, pointed out that Google LLC’s iconic home page now includes a microphone for voice interaction.

“We’re talking to tech these days,” said Rohrbaugh, although the data being sought and delivered may not yet be the most advanced in modern life. CTA’s studies show that the top three uses for digital assistants are currently for general internet searching, checking the weather and requesting music.

Nonetheless, in presentations by LG Electronics Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., company executives spent a significant amount of time talking to devices, from washing machines to refrigerators and televisions. David Vanderwaal, senior vice president of marketing for LG Electronics U.S.A., strolled across the CES stage on Monday listening to his refrigerator diagnose a cooling problem. Yoon Lee, Samsung’s senior vice president, unveiled a roving Bot Care robot that vocally offered personalized digital health tips based on the scan of his fingerprint.

“It’s just like any relationship with friends and family,” Vanderwaal said. “The better you understand them, the better you can help them.”

Chipmakers boost data chops

Chipmakers are also paying close attention to the dawn of the Data Age, and presentations from a number of processor company executives outlined a clear focus on building for the data-driven future. Qualcomm Inc. announced a third-generation automotive cockpit platform based in its Snapdragon architecture, and executives indicated they were working with Amazon to bring Alexa inside the vehicle.

Not to be outdone, Intel Corp. announced that it would start shipments of Ice Lake, the next Xeon scalable processor. The chip will boost data center processing with support for up to 48 processor cores.

“It’s designed to handle processing of the world’s data,” said Navin Shenoy, executive vice president for Intel’s Data Center Group. The chipset got an early test in China during Singles’ Day on Nov. 11 when Intel worked with e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to process $30 billion in transactions over a 24-hour period, according to Shenoy.

The annual CES gathering in Las Vegas provides a weather vane for the direction of not only the consumer space, but multiple segments of the technology ecosystem. As the tech industry moves forward with AI and more powerful engines for processing vast amounts of data, it’s not hard to envision a world where machines start to know us really, really well.

This is the same vision offered in the 1999 science fiction action film called “The Matrix,” where machines create a simulated reality that draws from humans as its energy source.

“Yeah, it is going to be a little like ‘The Matrix,’” CTA’s Koenig admitted on Sunday. Prepare for a dive down the data rabbit hole.

Photo: Consumer Technology Association