Nvidia leads an avalanche of entertainment-related announcements at CES

LAS VEGAS —  In a packed Las Vegas arena, Nvidia founder Jensen Huang stood on stage and marveled over the crisp real-time computer graphics displayed on the screen behind him. He watched as a dark-haired woman walked through ornate gilded double doors and took in the rays of light that poured in through stained glass windows.

“The amount of geometry that you saw was absolutely insane,” Huang told an audience of thousands at CES 2025 Monday night. “It would have been impossible without artificial intelligence.”

The chipmaker and AI darling unveiled computer circuits for digital processing on desktops and laptops powered by its new Blackwell artificial intelligence chip — kicking off a string of entertainment-related AI announcements and discussions at the trade show.

“Blackwell, the engine of AI, has arrived for PC gamers, developers and creatives,” Huang said, adding that Blackwell “is the most significant computer graphics innovation since we introduced programmable shading 25 years ago.” Blackwell technology is now in full production, he said.

Semiconductor maker AMD unveiled its latest Ryzen 9 and AI series processors Monday morning, boasting unprecedented performance for gamers and content creators. The new chips help AMD to further compete with rivals such as Nvidia, Intel and Qualcomm in the budding AI PC space.

“With the next generation of AI-enabled processors, we are proliferating AI to devices everywhere, and bringing the power of a workstation to thin and light laptops,” said Jack Huynh, senior vice president and general manager of computing and graphics group at AMD.

Google, meanwhile, previewed new AI tools for Google TV that use Gemini to make “interacting with your TV more intuitive and helpful.” Users, the company said, will be able to have a “natural” conversation with their TVs to ask about things like travel and history, or ask the TV for an overview of the day’s news.

Samsung also showed off its foray in AI and announced its “Samsung Vision AI” that includes a click to search feature allowing users to do things like identify an actor on screen, and a translation feature that provides real-time subtitles. It also integrates with the rest of the company’s smart home ecosystem.

SW Yong, president and head of visual display business at Samsung Electronics, said the company sees TVs as “interactive, intelligent partners” rather than “one-directional devices for passive consumption.”

“We’re reimagining what screens can do, connecting entertainment, personalization and lifestyle solutions into one seamless experience to simplify your life,” he said.

But not all of the AI discussion revolved around gadgetry at CES.

Leaders in technology and entertainment discussed current trends in generative AI ahead of Tuesday’s conference opener. In one panel discussion on entertainment copyright and AI, some attorneys and experts gave their opinions on whether whether the federal government would pass regulations on the technology this year, especially around the issue of gen-AI created deep fakes.

Some believe the courts and individual states would tackle the issue before the government would.

“There have been no major decisions on this issue. They will be litigated and tried in the next year or so,” said Chad Hummel, an attorney at McKool Smith.

Lisa Oratz, an attorney at Perkins Coie who represents clients in the publishing, arts and entertainment industries, acknowledged that AI technology should be regulated but noted it has an “upside.” She said many of her tech clients’ jobs are being made easier because AI helps alleviate iterative work.

“You can make content creation faster, easier and more affordable. You can do things like reduce barriers to entry and democratize content,” she said.

However, Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said that digital replication was central to their 2023 film and television strike, and that a lack of protections around the unregulated use of AI is core to negotiations between their video game performers and the industry.

“It is a tool and it is also an existential threat,” he said.

Parvini writes for the Associated Press.