Top 5 AI marketing activations—CES edition

The focus is growing on AI in electronics, software and advertising, especially this week with CES in Las Vegas, where tech companies are launching new products, such as Microsoft’s keyboards with built-in AI buttons. There is also Rabbit R1, a new gadget that puts AI functionality into a handheld device. Meanwhile, generative AI continues to be a hot topic in advertising, for good or ill. This week, in fact, The New York Times exposed how scammers were using AI tools to create fake ads using the likeness of Taylor Swift and spreading them on social media. The use of deepfakes in ads and misinformation are growing concerns, yet in the world of advertising the technology marches on. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, launched a chatbot app store on Wednesday, which opened specialized chatbots to the masses to help with everything from creative writing to cooking. Read more of Ad Age’s CES coverage As such, AI is not going anywhere, and once again Ad Age is looking at the most recent products and campaigns that will inspire the next generation of AI enthusiasts. Here is the latest edition of Ad Age’s Top 5 AI activations to watch, and how they could affect marketers. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs 5. AI creates TV ads AI is getting better at creating videos, and that means more advertisers, small and medium-sized businesses, will have more access to powerful tools to make ads for TV. This week, Waymark, a Detroit-based AI tech startup, showed how video generators could help transform TV commercials. Waymark announced a deal with The E.W. Scripps Co. to offer local advertisers within Scripps’ broadcast networks “an end-to-end video creation platform,” according to the announcement timed to CES. Waymark already works with Fox TV, Charter Comms and Spectrum Reach, and Hulu and Roku ad managers use Waymark’s AI tools, according to the announcement. Waymark showed off a short film called “The Frost” it created using Runway, the AI video-generator, to demonstrate the possibilities. 4. AI stock photos This week, Getty launched a new AI-powered stock photo service for small businesses. The service uses Nvidia Picasso to open a catalog of images that creators and small businesses can use with assurances the material in the images is protected from copyright claims. The rise of AI has come with a host of concerns about AI models that use unlicensed material—in fact, OpenAI has been in a dispute with The New York Times over how news articles could have been used to train ChatGPT. “Customers will be able to download and license any generated visual, with legal indemnification at no extra cost, giving them a low cost of entry to explore commercially safe generative AI for their marketing efforts,” Getty said of its Generative AI by iStock service. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs 3. AI in the metaverse MeetKai, the Los Angeles-based metaverse and AI company, popped up at CES with a virtual reality installation called “The Brotherhood Deli.” MeetKai specializes in metaverse commerce, and says it uses generative AI to build its digital stores. “The Brotherhood Deli” resembles a bodega and showcases digital twins of real-world merch for the NBAPA, the NBA players’ union. MeetKai has worked with brands including the Charlotte Hornets, Sony Entertainment Pictures and The Drone Racing League. At CES, the startup announced a partnership with askROI, an AI software services platform. Generative AI has become part of metaverse and virtual reality worlds by helping develop the characters that inhabit the digital worlds and helping build the worlds. MeetKai bills itself as a metaverse creation tool. 2. Click to AI Electronics makers are making AI more accessible with products that embed the technology directly into the gadgets. Microsoft, for instance, used CES to showcase a new AI button on Windows keyboards, a feature that will make it into many new laptops. Microsoft called it a “Copilot key” for Windows 11 devices. “Copilot” is the term Microsoft uses for the chat-based assistants that can help draft text documents, search Bing and other work-related and creative tasks. At CES, Lenovo released a new ThinkBook with the Copilot key. Also, Volkswagen announced plans to embed ChatGPT into several of its vehicles in Europe this year, giving drivers an onboard AI assistant. 1. AI Rabbit gadget One of the hot tech products released at CES, the Rabbit R1, is a handheld AI assistant, and it resembles an early iPod with a low-tech scroll wheel for navigation. The burnt orange, pocket-sized device connects to apps so the consumer can control rideshare services, food delivery, reserve a table, order tickets and more. It’s unclear if consumers will want to shell out $199 for an extra handheld gadget, and similar features could easily get embedded into next-generation phones. Yet, as a concept, AI-assistant devices show how people could have AI assistants right in their hands. OpenAI-funded Humane has developed a similar device called Ai Pin, which costs $699. This week, The Verge reported that Humane cut 4% of its workforce even before the device started shipping. Whatever the future of these devices, and whether they ever achieve mass adoption, early AI prototypes look cool.

Top 5 AI marketing activations—CES edition

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