Das AI: The Good, Bad, and Weird from My Week in Berlin

The good (Lenovo), the bad (Samsung), and the weird (LG) from my week in Berlin.

Recently, I had the pleasure of attending two back-to-back events in the beautiful city of Berlin.  The first was a product launch event hosted by Lenovo, and the second was IFA, a massive international consumer electronics trade show.  If you aren’t familiar with IFA (I wasn’t), it is similar to CES held annually in the US but with a more European-centered focus. The good was found at the Lenovo event, while the bad and the weird were displayed at IFA.

Let’s start with the good. 

Lenovo launched several new laptops, all leveraging AI, but all very different and supporting different users and use cases.  Lenovo is now sourcing three different chip manufacturers: Intel Corporation , AMD , and Qualcomm.  While this does introduce some complexity for them as well as buyers, it allows for the ultimate in choice.  Buyers can select the price/performance of AMD, the unbelievable battery life of Qualcomm, or the advanced features of Intel.

Click on the video below for my full recap from Lenovo Innovation World 👇

Speaking of Intel, Lenovo also announced a special edition for laptops co-developed with Intel called Aura.  This multi-year collaboration resulted in AI-powered smart features unique to Lenovo devices and only those with Intel processors.  This project started with surveying users about the things they needed most, and the result is a set of “Smart Modes” designed around the user experience.

Smart Shield is a mode that is focused on security and privacy.  If a user tries to conduct work on a public WiFi network, the system will automatically launch a VPN.  Another exciting feature is it can blur the screen if someone comes up behind you and starts looking over your shoulder at your screen.

Smart Wellness is a mode that is designed around the wellness of the user.  It can suggest a time for breaks based on screen usage and can even detect poor posture.  While this would normally raise flags over privacy concerns, AI processing is done on the device, meaning data isn’t being sent to the cloud for processing.

One of the most popular features is called Smart Share, where you tap your iOS or Android device on the side of your Aura laptop, and it automatically brings up your most recent photos on the laptop screen, with easy drag-and-drop functionality between the devices. 

It doesn’t take a ton of market research to know users always want longer battery life, and that is where Qualcomm comes in.  The Qualcomm-powered laptops contain the Snapgradon X Plus processor, allowing for a more mobile-like experience, including more than 30 hours of battery life.  While we are still in the early days of ARM-type processors on laptops, the success Apple has had with Apple Silicon has elevated the need for similar - if not better - battery performance on Windows devices.

The Lenovo Twist was the event's surprise.  This proof-of-concept laptop has a single-motorized hinge that can open, close, and rotate the screen with simple voice commands.  While the novelty wears off after a while, they did demonstrate an interesting use case.  Using AI face tracking, the screen and built-in camera can follow a presenter, tracking them as they move about the room.  While time will tell if this is a feature people really want, I applaud them for looking at new ways to innovate in a form factor that has not changed very much in decades.

See the Twist in action in the video 👇

Speaking of features people want, I’ve never heard anyone say, “If only I could answer phone calls on my washing machine.”  Now, there might be a market for an Instagram app on the washer with a certain demographic, #laundryday #cleanclothesareawesome.  But phone calls?  I’m not always against technology for technology’s sake, but this one baffled me.  While I like the idea of integrating personal devices with home devices, I don’t get this one, and it strikes me as unnecessary at best and dumb at worst.

Let’s shift gears from dumb to weird.  At the large LG pavilion, we got a glimpse of the future.  And the future is apparently weird.  I guess the concept of the smart home wasn’t working, so the LG marketing folks worked overtime to come up with “The Delightful Home” and “The Affectionate Home.” 

I want my home to be delightful, but I’m not sure if I want it to be affectionate.  And while later, I did see a booth that might fall under this category, I’m too embarrassed to go into the details.

There was also messaging around the “Second Youth Home,” which, according to the grey hair on the avatar-like characters in their videos, serves the needs of senior citizens.  It’s not like me to feel like a grumpy old man at a technology conference, but maybe that means I’m getting closer to my “second youth.”

Then, there was the overall concept of intelligent connecting: connecting with our home, food, wine, and home appliances, all powered by AI.  I love technology and am a sucker for a good marketing message, but it seems like these companies are reaching.  I don’t want to connect with my food intelligently; I want to eat it.

IFA wasn’t all bad, though.  Display technology continues to improve and amaze, including transparent screens, laser projectors, and rollable screens that disappear into a small projector box.  And the Honor 3 foldable phone is still my favorite mobile device on the market, though sadly not available in the US.  It fits a gorgeous foldable screen in a form factor about the size of an iPhone Pro Max.  8k video screens are nice but remind me that we have very little 4k content today, and that doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon.

Events like the IFA should leave us optimistic about the future of technology, though I left this one with a mix of confusion and disappointment.