We visited Seattle and Lenovo’s Tech World24 where we learned about the latest proposals and the products that we will soon have in our hands in which there is a common denominator: the artificial intelligence that invades everything.
With a motto that makes its intentions very clear, “Smarter AI for All”, Lenovo advocates for a very near future in which Artificial Intelligence will be more present than ever in each and every one of its products. In fact, it already has a name, Lenovo AI Now, a local AI client that seeks to transform any PC into an authentic personal digital “butler.”
Why Lenovo AI Now is not another “Alexa”
The goal of Lenovo AI Now is, really, to change the way we use a PC since, almost, its creation. With more or less complication, we have been using a computer since they came into our hands – see also a smartphone, tablet or any other similar device -. We have had to adapt to different interfaces, menus and options that whoever designed it thought, with greater or lesser effectiveness, would make things easier for us. Something much less common than probably initially thought.
Thanks to technologies such as the use of languages such as Llama 3.1 from Meta and its own language model, Lenovo’s proposal is to make it as easy as “telling” the computer, in natural language, what we want and for it to understand us. This simple thing makes use of another concept, much more complex, that we have heard a lot about at TechWorld24, which is that of Hybrid AI, the AI that has both part of its knowledge in the device and uses the cloud for the most complex processes. complicated.
Taking these technological concepts to something more mundane, Lenovo wants us to ask our laptop to transcribe the audio of a video call, to look for that document that we remember was there but we don’t know where it is, or to set up a new email account for us. the system client. But it can go even further since it creates a user knowledge base and we can ask about the times we have made a report, the most relevant data from the latest reports that we have saved in Excel or to give us a summary of that PDF. of several dozen pages that we need to know for the meeting that is about to begin and that just arrived 5 minutes ago.
Lenovo ensures, on the other hand, maximum security of the data that this tremendous AI system will use, both from Lenovo’s own technology and by using technologies such as Microsoft Azure AI Content Safety.
With an expected deployment starting this Q4 of 2024 in the form of a download for some of the brand’s products, it will come pre-installed on the majority of those that will be released on the market from now on. And also, for those such as Motorola smartphones or Lenovo tablets that do not incorporate it in their system, the Smart Connect functionality will allow that when we have them synchronized with a device that does have Lenovo AI Now, they can take advantage of some of its functions such as content creation.
That does not mean that Motorola is left without its share of AI locally in its products. More and more artificial intelligence functions will be integrated into the brand’s mobile phones and tablets through moto AI.
And some of the functions that we were already able to see include the possibility, through natural language, of asking it to buy us some plane tickets, order a taxi for us or, perhaps the most interesting thing that we could touch, as the “Catch me up” function does. » a summary of all the messages, calls and contacts that we have had on a day that we have not been able to pay attention to the mobile or «Remember me up», so that the mobile itself, without having to search for notes or images later, saves that for us that we know we will need later.
And speaking of interoperability, Mark Zuckeberg himself participated in Tech World 24 to announce that we will soon be able to control any Motorola from the Oculus Rift without taking off our glasses. That is, the screen of our mobile will appear in the simulation and we will be able to interact with it as if we had it in our hand, but in the virtual world.
What are the first Lenovo products to integrate it?
Far from presenting it as something that “will come”, at Tech World we have been able to get our hands on and test the first products and the occasional prototype in which Lenovo AI Now is going to be released.
First of all, of course, the powerful ThinkPad X1 2-in1 Gen 10 Aura Edition series, which in addition to being one of the longest names among the brand’s products, is also the flagship when it comes to professional equipment. We are talking about laptops equipped with Intel Core Ultra 200V processors with the new Intel Artc graphics, as well as a 48 TOPS neural processing unit (NPU), which comes to enhance the functionalities that Microsoft’s Copilot+ will give you.
We already met the surname “Aura” at the IFA 2024 in Berlin and refers to a series of experiences or modes that these products will carry, such as Smart Share, which allows us to send documents between our mobile phone and the PC by simply bringing it closer or Smart Care , which gives direct access to the brand’s help and support services and tools.
With a battery that lasts, according to the brand, up to 18 hours, interchangeable batteries and an aluminum design for extreme durability, it is, without a doubt, the brand’s most powerful “equipment” to work to date. With availability in February 2025, it has a starting price of $2,199.
AI and health
Another of the most interesting aspects of what was shown at Lenovo’s Tech World 24 is the application of AI in environments related to health care. Among the demos that populated the event we were left with the pioneering and unique project for the care of Alzheimer’s and dementia patients through ultra-realistic AI avatars.
These avatars are trained with hundreds of cases of these terrible diseases to offer conversational help that prioritizes precision, privacy and, above all, compassion so that there is no lack of help in the most complicated moments for family members and patients. This AI is capable of answering questions that only someone who has suffered from the disease could answer, understanding daily problems and talking about the disease with the family.
Another application that we have been able to see is the project for constant monitoring of arrhythmias for patients who have recently undergone surgery. This system, through a simple device and an app to transmit the patient’s symptoms, allows monitoring and early warning to the doctor through the analysis of the data it constantly receives.
But perhaps the most exciting has been the project with which an ALS patient who has already lost the ability to communicate, presented to the CEO of Lenovo, Yuanquing Yang, through a visual tracking system that combined with her AI avatar allows her to Communicate with your voice and face.
Prototypes of what awaits us
Along with this “typical” product, we were able to see two that are not so typical. Starting with the Lenovo AI Mouse. A mouse prototype that, it is likely, we will not see outside of professional environments, but that will “inspire” other brands since it presents a button dedicated to connecting with Lenovo AI Now. It is designed to improve comfort and productivity at work along with minimal energy consumption.
We were also able to get closer to the Lenovo “Home AI Brain”.
This is a prototype of an artificial intelligence system that, for example, can take good note of a family event, such as a birthday, and generate a video that immortalizes it without us having to worry about recording the video ourselves, and sharing its content. without problems on any screen in the house.
But perhaps the two most spectacular were, on the one hand, the Lenovo AI Buddy. It has been a long time since we saw Lenovo delve back into home assistants from products such as Smart Displays with Google Home. This device is based on a similar concept but has an interface capable of expressing emotions and interacting with users, adapting to the user’s mood, as well as their needs and requirements at all times, while at the same time being able to learn from our behavior throughout the year. Additionally, you can control any screen in the house to present content.
And it seems that 3D screens without glasses have returned, at least for Lenovo, because in this sense we also saw a demo project together with a ring, the Lenovo 3D Trackpoint, which allows control using three-dimensional gestures on the screen or the prototype from Lenovo Legion with 3D screen that gives that effect of depth to any 2D game. Adding to this renewed fever for 3D screens is the Super Multi-view 3D Conference Solution, a 65” screen with a 3D effect that literally behaves like a window in which we can create an extension of the given conference table. the sensation of depth it offers.
The “IA Worker” from N-VIDIA
Another announcement that came hand in hand with the appearance of Jen-Hsun “Jensen” Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, at the Lenovo event is the collaboration of both companies to join their efforts at the infrastructure level to sustain all these advances in AI and, especially, to provide services to the companies that are going to integrate them.
In his speech, the CEO of the well-known semiconductor company indicated that servers and data centers will go from being mere centers where documents are stored to become “AI Factories”, in which tokens will be generated in the form of AI agents. . Or what is the same, that in the offices we are going to have to welcome, as he himself defined, the “IA Worker”, virtual colleagues to whom, like their flesh and blood counterparts, the company will give powers and access to different responsibilities.
This collaboration has also materialized in the presentation of two products, the first, the most “cooled” server in the world thanks to Lenovo’s new Neptune systems, as well as the “brain” that will move many cars, especially thinking in autonomous vehicles, another of the sectors on which the company will focus in the future.
Other areas where Lenovo will take AI
As we mentioned, whether we like it or not, the era of AI has arrived and will change the world more than the Internet ever could. Tools such as Conversational AI Data Analytics will break barriers when interacting with large databases using natural language instead of SQL or similar or the new ThinkShield AI PC Cybersecurity applications when tackling cyber threats to systems in real time. And even in mental health care through the Work for Humankind program that, through AI avatars, can interact with people, identifying when they need help.
The truth is that we are going to a future in which many barriers to interacting with technology will fall and accelerate our ability to take advantage of it at dizzying speed, yes, in exchange for giving it the opportunity to know each other absolutely. The question is, will that make us better? Time will tell us.
