With its focus on innovative products and cutting-edge technology, the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has not historically paid much attention to energy companies. But there were signs of a shift at this year's Las Vegas event, as the tech sector begins to confront its substantial energy needs, which are certain to grow as cloud computing and artificial intelligence advance. "If you'd asked me to do CES five years ago, I wouldn't necessarily have seen the point," said Sebastien Fiedorow, chief executive of the French start-up Aerleum, which manufactures synthetic fuel from carbon dioxide.

Today's robots perform safety checks at industrial plants, conduct quality control in manufacturing, and are even starting to keep hospital patients company. But soon -- perhaps very soon -- these increasingly humanlike machines will handle more sophisticated tasks, freeing up people while raising complex questions about the roles of artificial intelligence that are gaining attention. At a panel hosted by the American Association of Retired Persons at this week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), experts described the next five years as a period where robots transition primarily from industrial sites to service settings, helping to address a worsening health care labor crunch.

It's our first chance to see a ton of new products that will debut this year (and some concepts that won't). They include everything from TVs and audio gear to full-fledged robots. The sheer volume of products can be overwhelming, but we've chased down all the cool new stuff at this year's show and highlighted inventions here for you to scroll (with more coverage to come in the next week). Our main takeaway: 2025 is going to be a great year for gadgets. Samsung's Frame TV has long been a favorite of interior designers and people who don't want a giant black void in their room whenever the TV isn't in use. You'll find two big upgrades in Samsung's new versions.

CES (formerly the Consumer Electronics Show) is the biggest tech convention of the year. It helps set the stage for all the wonderful gadgets we're going to see over the next 12 months. However, among all the quadcopters, questionably benevolent robots and devices with fancy flexible screens, there's a lot of small things that go into making CES a one-of-a-kind event. To highlight some of the silly, stupid and occasionally wholesome things we encountered at the show this year, we humbly present the very unofficial Dumb Fun awards for CES 2025. Komatsu's PC01E-2 looks like a children's playground toy, except that it actually works and is really goddam cute.

Reading an article about the Asus Zenbook A14 is doing a disservice to all parties involved. You really need to hold this thing yourself. The new 14-inch ultraportable laptop made a splash at CES 2025 in Las Vegas this week as the "world's lightest Copilot PC," earning an Innovation Award in the tech show's Sustainability & Energy/Power category and multiple "best of" nods (including one from us at the CNET Group). Made from an innovative material called "Ceraluminum" that's elegant and eco-friendly, the Zenbook A14 combines a flyweight frame with next-level Qualcomm power efficiency, a bright OLED display, and a gesture-controlled trackpad -- all for as low as 899.99. I'm old enough to remember when Steve Jobs slid the first Apple MacBook Air out of a brown envelope.

I'm convinced the robot revolution is finally here. I was at the world's largest electronics exhibition Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, where engineers have for decades claimed that commercially available humanoids were just around the corner. But this was the year that their predictions finally appeared to be close to reality. This was especially clear when I interacted with a robot that moved and danced with human-like fluidity--stepping one leg in front of the other and swaying naturally to maintain balance. Rounding a corner, I met another who could lift and stack boxes just like an Amazon worker.

It wouldn't be a tech convention without a smattering of weird and wonderful devices. The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2025 in Las Vegas featured more than 4,500 exhibitors. These booths showed off bizarre gadgets including, a spy camera for your garden, a vacuum that picks socks up from the floor and a cheese maker that makes mozzarella in two hours. Mirumi features sensors that detect people approaching, prompting it to either look around inquisitively or seem to duck for cover. It also has two long arms that wrap around a strap or handle of a bag or purse, clinging to it like a small child.

CES 2025 was a fantastic show for companies making good on the promises of years past. At these events, we're used to seeing booth after booth of gadgets in concept and prototype phases, with vague details about final designs and release windows of "eventually." This year, however, the vibe was way more release-ready. A handful of high-profile projects that debuted at previous CESes are back with concrete plans and actual release dates, and many of these products are available right now. Remember Ballie, the rolling robot that Samsung debuted in 2020 and then brought to CES 2024?

At CES last year, Sony teased an AR/VR headset prototype focused on "spatial content creation." And at the same time, Siemens announced it was working with Sony to use that same hardware, including the two new controllers it developed, for something it was calling the "industrial metaverse." That's a lot of buzzwords, but at CES 2025 both Siemens and Sony showed the headsets and associated software in action which helped clear up a lot of what the companies are trying to do here. During Sony's CES press conference, it announced its XYN brand of software and hardware solutions, with the headset being a key part of the equation. The XYN "spatial capture solution" uses mirrorless cameras to scan and make photorealistic 3D objects. Using the XYN headset, you can see those objects in 3D production software for animation, video games and other potential uses.

Kurt Knutsson discusses some tips to keep you safe. BEWARE DEEPFAKE SCAMS: The FBI is issuing a warning that criminals are increasingly using generative AI technologies, particularly deepfakes, to exploit unsuspecting individuals. This alert serves as a reminder of the growing sophistication and accessibility of these technologies and the urgent need for vigilance in protecting ourselves from potential scams. ROBOTICS ERA: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the artificial intelligence revolution is on the verge of delivering breakthroughs in robotics at the annual Consumer Electronics Show conference in Las Vegas. AI technology is being used more and more by doctors.