Stevie Wonder’s rule for AI at CES: ‘Make life better to live’
At CES 2026, Stevie Wonder offered a simple test for the technology. And in the boom of smart glasses, the most inspiring devices are not about perfect vision but about day-to-day freedom.
Stevie Wonder performs on stage during the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago on August 21, 2024.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
Of all the constant talk about artificial intelligence at CES this year, the most useful thing I heard came from Stevie Wonder.
I watched him walk around the expo floor – handlers tightening beside him, fans whirring in and out – and stood still long enough to ask a few questions. Wonder is not new to this world. He has always treated technology as part of his art – as something that must be shaped, tested and adjusted. Long before AI became the inevitable buzzword, he worked with synth pioneers on song-defining sounds like “Superstition” and “Living for the City.” He has been attending CES for over a decade.
Wonder is working on his first album in over 20 years, so I asked what he made of AI in the creative process. He did not give any vague answer. He told me, “I’m not going to let my music be programmed.” “I’m not going to use it for myself and the music I’ve done.” He was not rejecting technology. He was protecting what he considered human territory. “We can keep talking about technology,” he said, but he was concerned with a different question. “Let’s see how you make things better in people’s lives – not to simulate life but to make life better by living it.”
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Among health-tech exhibitors, a common theme emerged: the always-on AI companion that can help make care decisions, locate services, and navigate daily life. Dominic King, vice president of health at Microsoft AI, told me that people already use Copilot and Bing to ask about 50 million health-related questions. Every day,
Yet this promise only seems real in smaller devices with clearer betas – especially those designed for people who are blind or have limited vision. With accessibility technology, both the problem and the benefits became apparent.
After a few hours on the floor, a pattern emerged. Some of the most compelling accessibility technologies don’t try to fix vision, but rather transform the visual world into something useful. EchoVision, a pair of smart glasses from Calif.-based AGIGAA — developed with Wonder’s input — lets a wearer point their head toward a sign, a door, or any other object and hear details about it. In a hall full of gadgets that seemed like solutions to problems, it felt good to have a statement about making someone’s day easier.
But details don’t always solve the whole problem.
“I’m not sure it would do you much good to know which direction the restrooms are,” a representative from Seattle-based Glidance told me, “if you don’t already have the navigation skills to avoid everyone getting in the way.” The world is not merely a picture frozen in time. This is a movement. This is a crowd. This is the pillar, the curb, anarchy.
Glidance’s answer was the Glide, a two-wheeled device that would rotate in front of you with a grip like a handlebar mounted on wheels. Stereo cameras detected obstacles and hazards. The device then applies steering and braking to help you move in the direction you want to go.
Glidden held the guide in his hand; .Lumen Apply it on your forehead. The Romanian start-up’s founder, Cornel Amarii, described his glasses as “a self-driving car that sits on your head.” At CES, the company won the accessibility award in a pitch competition for assistive-tech start-ups, which came with a massive check for $10,000. (“Now we have money for a return ticket,” Ameriyi said.)
Many CES demos relied on heavy sensor rigs. But .lumen kept the hardware of its glasses simple and tried to do the rest with software. The six cameras create stereoscopic vision – depth perception created from slightly different angles, similar to the way two eyes triangulate a curb. And the team made an important design choice: The glasses don’t require an Internet connection. All calculations are done in the device itself.
Ameri explained that geometry alone is not enough. A lake is absolutely flat. A system that only understands “flat” will lead you straight into it. The hardest part is distinguishing safe surfaces from dangerous surfaces – then converting that into something your body can use. When .Lumen’s glasses find a clear path, they don’t announce directions one step at a time. They guide you with haptics, nudging your head toward the open path.
All the sensor talks and demos were fascinating, but the human payoff stuck with me. The purpose of these devices is to let someone move through a lobby, down a sidewalk, down a crowded hall, without having to stop and reassess every few feet.
The best accessibility tech I saw at CES took a back seat to the show’s most annoying habit: making sweeping promises when people need reliable, specific devices. The cost of some of these devices will be very high. Some will take longer to mature than their suggested demo. Some people will stumble in the real world. But they point in a direction that Stevie Wonder would recognize: devices that make life better for those who live it.
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