New York is always an exciting, energetic city to visit and ... was made even more so as I attended the (recent) 'HPC & AI on Wall Street' conference, which HPCWire are now championing. It was well worth the train ride from Boston and interesting to see the varied mix of attendees present and hear how HPC and AI is evolving in the world of finance. All sectors of the financial services industry (FSI) were represented at the conference from traditional, old school banks to venture capital firms, fintechs and hedge funds. AI adoptions varied from integrating machine learning into existing applications and processes to mining unearthly amounts of market data for a trading edge. My first lesson was there is a dichotomy between too much data volume and insufficient data context within this community. Don't worry the bank account and market value data is as solid as always.

The annual consumer electronics show has been dominated by Asian tech giants Samsung, LG and Sony in recent years, along with a trade show floor featuring thousands of startups hoping lightning strikes with some Las Vegas-style luck. What you historically don't see at CES are the U.S.-based tech giants Apple, Amazon or Google, which tend to show off their new products at their own heavily produced media events later in the year. But CES 2018, which kicks off with events Sunday, will have a big presence from Google as it continues its push to take on Amazon's Echo connected speaker. More: How to choose the best smart speaker for you: shopper's guide The Las Vegas Monorail, which takes delegates to and from CES and city hotels, is splattered with a huge "Hey Google," advertisement, one of the two "wake words," people use to pose queries to the Google Assistant, most notably on the Google Home speaker. Google also has a large "Hey Google," booth right outside the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Jefferson Graham previews the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where new smart home products using technology from Google, Amazon and Apple will be unveiled. The annual consumer electronics show has been dominated by Asian tech giants Samsung, LG and Sony in recent years, along with a trade show floor featuring thousands of startups hoping lightning strikes with some Las Vegas-style luck. What you historically don't see at CES are the U.S.-based tech giants Apple, Amazon or Google, which tend to show off their new products at their own heavily produced media events later in the year. Google looks to make a big splash at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show, touting the Google Assistant. But CES 2018, which kicks off with events Sunday, will have a big presence from Google as it continues its push to take on Amazon's Echo connected speaker.