We’ve heard plenty from established brands at CES 2024, of course, but there are also newcomers touting various wares, one of which is AI Shark.
This is a company – the head of which, Todd Hays, was the US CEO of the outfit behind the GameShark back in the nineties, which facilitated cheats in console games – that’s making a number of ‘intelligent gaming accessories’ including an AI-powered mouse, keyboard, game controller, headset, and a gaming hub.
As you might expect, all of these planned innovations use AI to make you a better gamer.
The gaming mouse is said to adjust DPI settings on-the-fly to ensure that mouse strokes and cursor movements are “always accurate and fluid,” learning your movement patterns over time, and optimizing tracking and sensitivity to match your own personal mousing style.
The keyboard is conceived in much the same vein, analyzing keystrokes and learning your play style, then suggesting remapped key configurations or macros that the AI deems useful.
The controller is built along a similar philosophy, too, suggesting button remaps and sensitivity adjustments, and containing sensors to detect your grip and pressure, and more besides.
What about the headset? This uses AI to leverage “advanced audio processing capabilities” and point out things like another player’s footsteps in a shooter, and presumably the direction they’re located in. Plus it can deliver verbal cues highlighting certain in-game events, so you don’t miss them. (Apparently AI Shark has hooked up with Altec Lansing for producing the headphones).
Finally, the AI Shark Core is the gaming hub, described as an “inline compute unit designed to process real-time video, allowing for instantaneous game analysis and feedback.”
PC Gamer, which picked up on all this, notes that the products seem to be at a very early stage right now, and the provided images on the AI Shark website are hastily concocted mock-ups (using for example a pair of Altec Lansing Whisper headphones with the AI Shark logo slapped on them).
Hays told PC Gamer that the peripherals are currently “product concepts with tech demo proof of concepts already developed.”
Analysis: coach class
The powers of the various controllers (gamepad, keyboard, mouse) are reasonably clear on a basic level, even if the gritty details aren’t. Mind you, the headset is vaguer in terms of how the described implementation will work, and the same goes for the overarching gaming hub. Presumably the latter hooks up between your monitor and PC – and peripherals too, maybe, kind of like a KVM switch? – to provide its analysis of the games you play.
AI Shark says the hub will offer “strategic insights” into your gaming that evolve with you as a player. The company describes it as such: “Whether you’re a novice learning the ropes or a seasoned pro refining your tactics, the AI Core elevates your play by providing real-time adjustments and feedback. It’s like having a personal gaming coach.”
We’ve imagined this kind of thing coming to the world of PC gaming for quite some time, in all honesty. Obviously, the utility of any kind of AI coach will very much hinge on how useful and worthwhile the feedback provided is, and we can’t even begin to guess at how that might pan out.
Whatever the case here, the broader use of AI in gaming is going to prompt all sorts of questions and likely controversy in terms of what’s regarded as fair and what’s not (or what might be borderline cheating, even).
Another product at CES 2024 raised concerns along these lines, namely the MSI monitor that leverages AI to spot enemies on the mini-map and flag them to you (in case you miss their presence), which is debatably a bit of a cheat. And as the AI processing is done via an on-board chip in the monitor itself, this isn’t something that can be detected server-side and prevented.
Never mind arguments about whether keyboard and mouse gamers on console have an unfair advantage versus controller players (they do, of course) – get ready for a future where the lines of hardware and software-based advantages are increasingly blurred, not to mention increasingly controversial thanks to AI.
Check out our CES 2024 hub for all the latest news from the show as it happens. We'll be covering everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets, and the latest in AI, so stick with us for the big stories. And don’t forget to follow us on TikTok for the latest from the CES show floor!
