New Products

At a press event on the eve of CES 2025, LG Electronics rolled out what it describes as “Affectionate Intelligence”—its take on artificial intelligence woven throughout daily life. Company representatives say this new AI will impact everything from home appliances to automobiles and commercial systems. Whether it lives up to those promises remains to be seen, but the rhetoric onstage was big.

From Home to “Mobility” to Beyond
According to LG, this so-called Affectionate Intelligence goes beyond the standard notion of AI by attempting to “understand and empathize” with customers. In practice, that means a system LG calls “FURON,” which the company claims combines large language models, spatial sensing, and customer lifestyle data in real time. As pitched, FURON tweaks your thermostat if you cough at night, suggests errands during your free time, and even recommends you stop for coffee when you leave your travel mug behind.

LG also points to its existing network of “connected devices.” Company officials claim there are already hundreds of millions of LG smart products worldwide, plus an expanded portfolio after its acquisition of a smart home solutions provider, Athom. Integrating third-party IoT devices from some 170 brands is another piece of the puzzle that LG says will help it deliver the seamless connectivity it envisions.

Partnering with Microsoft
Microsoft was invited onstage to bolster the pitch. Company representatives said they are working with LG to meld Microsoft’s AI technology with LG hardware in homes, cars, and offices. Microsoft executives also discussed efforts to improve data centers, using LG’s cooling technologies and energy management systems. Whether these partnerships translate to widely available solutions in the near term is anybody’s guess, but the two companies promise greater efficiency (and presumably some future revenue streams) from “empathetic AI integrated services.”

A Theatrical Touch
To illustrate how Affectionate Intelligence might look in real life, LG trotted out a theatrical family scenario: morning routines featuring FURON adjusting temperatures and schedules, in-car AI that offers coffee detours and chill music if your heart rate climbs, and after-work TV sessions where AI isolates dialogue from background noise. Each example presumably uses advanced sensing, voice recognition, and a dash of generative AI to adjust on the fly.

Beyond the Home
LG’s CEO, William Cho, also teased a “Smart Cottage”—a compact, AI-loaded home featuring appliances, HVAC systems, and other technologies. On the automotive side, LG described a “personalized digital cave” concept using software-defined vehicles and AI that adapts to road conditions and driver behavior.

In addition, LG reiterated its foray into industrial and commercial applications, including factory solutions, robotics, and data center cooling systems. The company made it clear it’s targeting both consumers and businesses with its expanding portfolio.

CES Reality Check
As with all CES announcements, it’s not always guaranteed that these AI features will roll out to the masses right away—or at all. LG’s “Affectionate Intelligence” branding may simply repackage well-known AI capabilities, wrapped in a friendlier label. Still, if the company delivers on even some of these claims, we might see smarter (or at least more talkative) appliances, vehicles, and offices before too long.

Whether “Life’s Good 24/7” is a fair prediction remains to be seen, but LG clearly wants to put its own spin on how AI will shape our daily routines – that is, if you don’t mind your every action being monitored. For now, it’s a lofty promise served up with polished demos on a CES stage—one that may or may not hit the mark when it eventually arrives in the real world.