The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is an annual convention in Las Vegas that showcases thousands of products and innovations in the world of technology from all over the planet. This year, Buffalo Toronto Public Media board member Dr. Philip Glick, a board-certified pediatric surgeon with over 35 years of experience, is attending the days-long CES. Over the course of the convention, Dr. Glick will be filing first-hand accounts of what he is seeing and hearing from CES.
Edition 4:
On this edition of WBFO at CES 2025, Dr. Glick sat down for a one-on-one interview with Rima Dael, the CEO of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. They discuss the genuine intent of the tech company representatives at CES, the importance of humanity in AI, and a solar car with an affordable price.
The full interview can be heard by clicking the blue "Listen" button below.
It is also transcribed here:
Dr. Glick: I have the pleasure of sitting down with Rima Dael, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. She and I have had the pleasure of being on a tour at CES the last two days with Jacobs Media, which has been phenomenal. I also want to say that Rima is a good friend of WBFO in Buffalo, and let's get it out of the way, Go Bills!
Rima Dael: Go Bills! My first official donation to an NPR station was to WBFO around 1997, I think it was so, yeah, that was a while ago.
Dr. Glick: We're doing another on-air broadcast in two weeks, and I've got your speed dial now, so we'll have you on board. So, tell me your impressions of CES 2025?
Rima Dael: What I am most impressed about, and I don't know if this was just because it has been curated specifically by Jacobs Media, is that the folks that we have met here, the creators and the front folks for the tech companies, have all been authentic and genuine about wanting to connect the community with their technology. I'm also reacting to the Facebook/Meta issues that have just come out, saying that they're removing fact-checking from some of their community notes and their community pages. So, coming from a news and community information background, that has a chilling effect on me about going against editorial norms or journalism norms.
Dr. Glick: You can’t see my face on camera but I’m rolling my eyes as we speak about this.
Rima Dael: So, that being the backdrop of the meeting, folks who have talked about their ethical policies, or the political ramifications of their technology, is pretty huge, but everyone has presented themselves in a very authentic way, and that is different than what I thought I would find here.
Dr. Glick: So, are you feeling like the presenters at CES have been able to convince you that they're going to keep both humanity and AI?
Rima Dael: At least the ones we've talked to and that we've seen. My favorite thing that I've seen here is a company called Aptera, and they have a Solar Car with a base price point for the public of $30,000 to $35,000. That's a relatively cheap price point and is affordable for community radio stations versus getting your Ford truck or Ford van and then adding to the cost of gas. So, talking to those folks, of course, they're going to sell me on buying their product, but their value structure and the value proposition that they're talking about is from a community-based place. They want to serve a community with values of sustainability and disrupting the car industry, where you don't have to go to a specific mechanic or garage to get specialty parts. They’ll tell you how to fix it yourself. So, for the DIY’ers that are out there, that's pretty cool. For my kiddo, who is 19, he would be into that, being able to fix it himself. He doesn't have to rely on going to a garage to fill up gas into his gas tank. He would want something sustainable.
Edition 5:
On this edition of WBFO at CES 2025, Dr. Glick sat down for an interview with Fred and Paul Jacobs from the Jacobs Media Association. He gets their thoughts on the separation of humanity and AI.
The full interview can be heard by clicking the blue "Listen" button below.
It is also transcribed here:
Dr. Glick: I have the pleasure now of sitting down with Fred and Paul Jacobs from the Jacobs Media Association, who have been our host for the last two and a half days, and I'm hoping they're going to continue to invite us back year after year, because it's been quite an event. So, guys, this isn't your first CES, but it is mine. Tell me what your impressions of this meeting were.
Fred Jacobs: So, this is a very different show than usual. Most of the time, it’s a gadget fest, where, when you return, people always go, “Hey, so what was the coolest gadget you saw at CES?” This year is more ethereal, this is more about AI, and AI isn't an exhibit. There's no Hall where the AI stuff is, AI is in the air. It's kind of the DNA, if you will, of all this technology. So, this was a very different show for us.
Dr. Glick: That's so interesting, because this is my first show, and that was my impression. Paul, what do you think?
Paul Jacobs: Pretty much the same, people when they see CES, they just see big TVs and glitz and everything else, and this show really is demonstrating the breadth of artificial intelligence at even this early stage and how it is permeating literally every corner of our lives. Nobody knows where it's going, but you can kind of see the seeds being planted, and the next 10 years with this technology is going to be fascinating for everybody.
Dr. Glick: So, what do you think the litmus test is that AI is really improving all these technologies?
Fred Jacobs: So, it really starts with efficiency, I think, in a perfect world, and this is not a perfect world, but in a perfect world, AI eliminates maybe the 20% of your job or your tasks that is drudgery, that takes up valuable time, and so that's part of how AI is being pitched. But as Paul said, we're not sure where it's ultimately going to lead. At what point do the machines start outthinking us humans? I think one of the ongoing bits of conversation has been, will humanity win out in all of this? How important it is to have the human factor over the machines.
Dr. Glick: You know, I think it's important that we humans realize that the machines have to help us. We've got 8 billion people on this planet. We're going to have 10 billion soon. We can't feed them; we can’t educate them. We're going to need AI to help us do all these tasks, and just so no one feels threatened by this. My impression is, is that most farmers are getting old, and they need help. Most contractors can't find enough labor, they need help. So, I'm optimistic that these things that we saw at the Consumer Electronics Show are going to help the world and not hurt the world.
Paul Jacobs: We agree, and I think some of the biggest challenges American business faces, and really all of us face, is getting past those initial fear stereotypes that AI is going to replace human beings; that the machines are going to take over. No, the machines can do a lot, and they're going to do some amazing things. They can't replace our emotions, our reasoning, our compassion, and that is the secret sauce for businesses, families, our culture, and everything else. So, I agree with you, AI can become, in its own way, digital rocket fuel if we allow it to happen, and people who put their heads in the sand and are in denial or fear are going to miss some pretty easy opportunities to improve a lot of aspects of their lives.
Fred Jacobs: Well, you know, the thing we've learned from coming out to CES, and we've gone for the past 16 years, is that technology is a double-edged sword, and it doesn't matter whether you're thinking about social media or connected cars or iPhones or any of those things. There are benefits it brings, and then there are some downsides, and AI is very much in that same bucket as other technologies. So, people who dwell on the negatives need to see that there's another side to this. So, how are we going to play this as a society, as organizations, as people? I think it’s really what we've been looking at as we've been going from exhibit to exhibit this week.
