"By now, the headlines almost write themselves: humanoid robots everywhere, AI in everything. Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2026 didn't disrupt that narrative-it confirmed it. What changed was the subtext. This was the year AI stopped feeling experimental and started feeling infrastructural. Intelligence has shifted from novelty to baseline, forcing harder questions about consequence, control, and agency-not just what technology can do, but how it reshapes systems once opting out is no longer realistic."
"Computing has long lived in front of us, on desks, in hands, behind glass. At CES 2026, the more consequential shift was where technology is now choosing to settle: on the body, and within the social rules that already govern it. This wasn't about wearables as accessories. It was about gravity -deciding which parts of the body can host intelligence without demanding attention, breaking etiquette, or forcing users into performative behavior."
"Take iPolish, which turned fingernails into a programmable surface. Using digital clip-on nails and a magic wand connected to an app, wearers can shift between hundreds of colors instantly. The move is deceptively simple, but strategically sharp: Nails are already expressive, customizable, and socially accepted. No new behavior is required. Intelligence succeeds here precisely because it inhabits a place culture already"
AI moved from experimental novelty to everyday infrastructure, prompting focus on consequence, control, and agency as opting out becomes unrealistic. Success metrics shifted from spectacle and scale to judgment and restraint. The most advanced products prioritized considered design over attention-seeking features, treating restraint as competitive advantage. Interaction moved toward the body and existing social norms, favoring quieter, subconscious interfaces rather than performative wearables. Designers selected bodily locations that host intelligence without demanding attention or violating etiquette. Examples like programmable nails show intelligence succeeds when technology occupies culturally accepted, expressive spaces requiring no new user behavior.
Read at Fast Company
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