The latest leaps in artificial intelligence in everything from cars, robots to appliances will be on full display at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) opening Thursday in Las Vegas. Forced by the pandemic to go virtual in 2021 and hybrid last year, tens of thousands of show-goers are hoping for a return to packed halls and rapid-fire deal-making that were long the hallmark of the annual gadget extravaganza. "In 2022, it was a shadow of itself-- empty halls, no meetings in hotel rooms," Avi Greengart, an analyst at Techspotential told AFP. "Now, (we expect) crowds, trouble getting around and meetings behind closed doors--which is what a trade show is all about." The CES show officially opens on January 5, but companies will begin to vie for the spotlight with the latest tech wizardry as early as Tuesday. CES will be spread over more than 18 acres (seven hectares), from the sprawling Las Vegas Convention Center to pavilions set up in parking lots.

Is anyone going to CES this year? A long-simmering question in the tech world will finally get its answer as the influential gadget show returns to the Las Vegas Strip after a hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. "We know it will be a smaller show this year, for obvious reasons," said Jean Foster, senior vice president at the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the event's organiser. Several huge tech companies have abandoned plans to attend in person. The latest sign of its dwindling size was Friday's announcement that CES will run one day shorter than originally planned.

President Donald Trump's daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump is facing backlash over her "extreme privilege" after the first daughter was invited to participate in a keynote interview at a major technology conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Trump participated in a keynote session at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on Tuesday. She discussed the "path to the future of work" with Gary Shapiro, the CEO of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), which hosts the annual conference. The first daughter had been invited to speak at the conference given her experience helping lead the White House's approach to economic empowerment, job creation and growth. A number of prominent voices in the technology industry, however, were not convinced, with women leaders in tech branding Trump's involvement in the conference "an insult to women in technology."

Editor's note: This story is the first installment in a monthly series looking at some of the biggest investments grocers and food companies are making. Previous articles sponsored by BMO Harris Bank can be found here. "Hey Google, set my alarm for 8:30 a.m. These are among the most common demands and questions for voice-controlled personal assistants and smart speakers. But once consumers say "Alexa, order me bananas, Honey Nut Cheerios and a loaf of bread," difficulties arise. Conversational commerce, as it is called, is still in its infancy across all industries, Jon Reily, vice president of commerce strategy at Publicis.Sapient, told Grocery Dive. Every retailer, from department stores to grocers, is trying to figure out how best to use it, he said. But food retailers do have an advantage, Reily noted. Unlike other verticals like clothing stores where all products need to be seen before purchasing, much of grocery shopping is replenishment of items like cereal, cat litter, ...

The mix of software and services and higher prices are key to Apple's effort to offset slowing iPhone unit sales. Though the company reported record annual revenue on Nov. 1 due to higher iPhone prices, it also said it would stop reporting the number of iPhones sold--a metric that has been stagnant lately--a decision that many analysts interpreted as signaling the iPhone's growth years are in the past. Apple's stock price has declined by nearly a quarter since then. While the push beyond its Silicon Valley home could aid those efforts, it also will test a highly centralized company that has thrived due to a concentrated workforce located near its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, analysts said. "This idea of'Designed in Cupertino' has really been the ethos of Apple, and now you're going to have AI and services designed outside Cupertino," said Gene Munster, managing partner at investment and research firm Loup Ventures.

The trio of phones will boast other features, such as facial-recognition technology, but their display size stands out--their average screen area, without accounting for a facial-recognition system that juts into the top of the display, is 23% larger than last year's three new phones and 28% bigger than the two models unveiled in 2016. Note: Screens on iPhone X and newer have facial-recognition systems that cut into the display. At a time when people are buying fewer new phones, bigger size brings two advantages. It helps Apple buoy prices and profit margins because it can sell larger phones at a greater markup than it pays suppliers for the larger screens. And it encourages people to use their phones more, helping momentum of Apple's services business, which includes app-store sales and subscriptions to video services like Netflix and HBO.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai broke a new barrier in artificial intelligence technology Tuesday when he unveiled a voice assistant that sounds exactly like a human voice. At the I/O developers conference, Pichai introduced Google Duplex, which allows the Assistant to speak with human-like cadence and includes artificial intelligence that is able to comprehend context and unclear answers. Pichai demonstrated Duplex's ability by having Assistant make reservations with a restaurant and a hair salon in two recorded phone calls. The receivers of the calls seemed to have no idea they were speaking to an AI voice. In the phone calls, Google Assistant said "ums" and "uhs" to make itself sound more human.

If you've ever wanted a robot to do the vacuuming, then the CES tech show has something for you. The Aeolus robot is designed to perform a range of household tasks - including mopping floors, rearranging furniture and putting away dishes. However, like many of the bots showcased in Las Vegas this year, the pressure sometimes got to it. "Aeolus has had enough," tweeted Signe Brewster, a writer at tech site Wirecutter, after observing the bot stall inexplicably during a demo. Aeolus has had ENOUGH pic.twitter.com/GxptFULhiO

Similar to Amazon's original Echo, the Invoke is a Pringles can-size speaker that can play music, check traffic and answer questions about sports scores or historical facts. Microsoft and Harman Kardon announced plans in May to launch the Invoke, priced at $199. In August, Harman Kardon said it also would launch the Allure, a voice-enabled speaker using Amazon's Alexa. Though Microsoft's arrival to the market comes years after Amazon's, the company is betting the Invoke can draw customers in with its connections to Microsoft products that have millions of users, such as the Office productivity franchise and Skype internet-calling. Cortana, like Amazon's Alexa, will take commands from users.

Amazon has unveiled a major software update for its Echo speaker allowing the gadget to work as a multi-room hifi system. It also revealed a new developer kit that will allow an Echo to control speakers made by other firms, such as Bose, Samsung and Sonos for the first time. The update will allow users to simply ask for the music they want to hear in each room - or to listen to music throughout the house. Rumors from earlier this month that Amazon is launching multi-room audio have come to fruit. Starting today users with multiple Echo products can play music simultaneously in multiple rooms.