Unveiling the Unseen: Highlights from CES 2025 You Can’t Afford to Miss!

Great to see you again for Week in Review. I missed you! This week, we’ll explore all the devices and announcements from this year’s CES, Meta’s choice to retract its fact-checking program, TikTok’s support for employees impacted by the California wildfires, and additional topics! Let’s get started.

CES 2025 took place this week. The event showcased keynote speeches from major tech companies such as Nvidia, Samsung, Toyota, and more. Additionally, there were the anticipated gadgets, devices, and intriguing AI assertions present on the exhibition floor. Our group of journalists was on-site, and you can review everything that piqued our interest at this year’s event right here.

Meta is revising its content moderation frameworks that were developed in response to critiques about aiding the spread of political and health misinformation. The organization is eliminating its third-party fact-checking process in favor of an X-like Community Notes system, which critics view as an effort to appease the upcoming Trump administration. Reactions have been rapid, with a surge in interest in searches concerning deletion of Meta accounts.

OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman mentioned that the firm is incurring losses on its $200-per-month ChatGPT Pro subscription due to higher-than-expected usage. Launched late last year, ChatGPT Pro provides users access to an enhanced version of OpenAI’s o1 “reasoning” AI model and removes rate restrictions on several of the company’s other tools, such as its Sora video generator.

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News

Wildfires vs. the trials of capitalism: TikTok instructed its LA employees affected by the wildfires to utilize personal or sick leave if they cannot work remotely. The company’s LA office remains shuttered as wildfires wreak havoc throughout the greater Los Angeles region. Read more

Introducing Project Digits: At CES 2025, Nvidia introduced Project Digits, a “personal AI supercomputer” aimed at AI researchers, data analysts, and students, providing access to the company’s Grace Blackwell hardware platform in a compact design. Read more

Fresh copyright challenges for Meta: A recent legal filing asserts that Mark Zuckerberg authorized the developers behind Meta’s Llama AI models to utilize a collection of hacked e-books and articles for training, including works by authors like Sarah Silverman and Ta-Nehisi Coates. Read more

A robotic cat that cools your tea: The latest charming gadget from Yukai Engineering is the Nékojita FuFu, a small robotic cat that can be attached to a mug or bowl, blowing air to cool your coffee or soup. Read more

X clarifies its position on parody accounts: X announced it will start labeling parody accounts on the platform. Users have confused posts from parody accounts with genuine statements since X removed conventional verification badges in favor of paid verification. Read more

AI that mimics the actual world: Google is assembling a new team focused on AI models that can imitate the physical environment. This team will be led by Tim Brooks, who was a co-leader at OpenAI’s Sora. He transitioned to Google DeepMind in October. Read more

Cannabis brand suffers from cyberattack: The well-known Los Angeles-based cannabis company Stiiizy confirmed that hackers gained access to sensitive customer information, including government-issued documents and medical cannabis cards, during a cyber incident in November. Read more

This electric spoon could enhance your meal’s flavor: Why increase the salt in your dish when a $127 spoon can do the job? Kirin Holdings showcased an electronic spoon that utilizes a weak electric current to heighten sodium ion concentration in your food. Read more

That’s quite a sum: A Delaware judge has sanctioned a settlement that will require Tesla directors to reimburse up to $919 million to the automobile manufacturer, officially addressing claims that they excessively compensated themselves. Read more

The most peculiar devices at CES 2025: CES would not be complete without some genuinely outrageous products, claims, and keynote highlights. We compiled the most striking examples from the exhibition floor. Read more