Every year, the giant CES tech trade show in Las Vegas kicks off with a press conference by the Consumer Technology Association, which organizes the show, lays out the top tech trends for the months ahead. This year, CTA basically stole its own thunder, projecting last week that U.S. consumer tech spending will grow 2.8% in 2024, snapping a two-year decline.
The CTA 2024 forecast includes 2.3% growth in hardware revenue, reversing a 5.4% decline last year, and 3.8% growth in services, improving from 2.4% growth in 2023.
As I laid out in this week’s Tech Trader column previewing the show, the big news at the show this year is going to be all about artificial intelligence—AI semiconductors, AI PCs, AI-enhanced cars, and even AI-powered barbecue grills.
The Tech Trends presentation late Sunday afternoon, in front of a packed meeting room full of journalists at the Mandalay Bay hotel, was quite chipper about the outlook for tech generally and AI in particular, but the session included some worrisome results for AI vendors from a recent survey asking consumers about their views of artificial intelligence.
In one question, CTA asked consumers for one-word reactions to AI.
The most common response was “innovative,” at 42%, which was followed by “futuristic” at 36%, and then “intelligent” at 35%, which seems a little repetitive. More concerning was that 30% said AI was “unpredictable,” 23% said AI was “scary,” 21% said it was “impersonal” and 19% called AI “intimidating.”
Even more concerning: consumers’ responses to a question that detailed their AI worries. Nearly two-thirds—65%—said they were “extremely concerned” or “very concerned” about privacy and AI.
Nearly as many—63%—worry about AI-powered disinformation, no small issue in a presidential election year. Safety was cited as a concern by 60% of the group, while 59% fretted about potential job losses from adoption of AI. Consistent with those findings, 74% said that the federal government should be responsible for regulating AI safety.
In October 2023, the Biden Administration issued a lengthy executive order laying out a series of actions intended to regulate the safety of generative AI software and their underlying large-language models.
Historically, Congress has struggled to reach consensus on tech regulation, failing to adopt a nationwide digital-data-privacy policy. There’s no agreement on how to regulate social media, and a once-ferocious bipartisan drive to ban TikTok as a national security risk failed to trigger any legislative action. But CTA’s survey suggests consumers want Uncle Sam to regulate AI—with potential to slow down the AI freight train if the next Congress can figure it out.
Write to Eric J. Savitz at [email protected]
Read the full article here