Amazon acquires Bee, the AI wearable that information all the things you say
Amazon has acquired the AI wearables startup Bee, in accordance with a LinkedIn submit by Bee co-founder Maria de Loudres Zollo. Amazon confirmed the acquisition to TechCrunch, however famous that the deal has not but closed.
Bee, which raised $7 million final yr, makes each a standalone Fitbit-like bracelet (which retails for $49.99, plus a $19-per-month subscription) and an Apple Watch app. The product information all the things it hears — until the consumer manually mutes it — with the aim of listening to conversations to create reminders and to-do lists for the consumer.
Zollo advised TechCrunch final yr that the corporate hopes to create a “cloud cellphone,” or a mirror of your cellphone that offers the non-public Bee system entry to the consumer’s accounts and notifications, making it doable to get reminders about occasions or ship messages.
“We imagine everybody ought to have entry to a private, ambient intelligence that feels much less like a software and extra like a trusted companion. One which helps you mirror, bear in mind, and transfer via the world extra freely,” Bee claims on its web site.
Different corporations like Rabbit and Humane AI have tried to make AI-enabled wearables like this, however haven’t discovered a lot success to date. However at a $50 value level, Bee’s units are extra cost-accessible to a curious client who doesn’t wish to make a giant monetary dedication. (The ill-fated Humane AI Pin was $499.)
An Amazon spokesperson advised TechCrunch that Bee workers obtained gives to affix Amazon.
This acquisition indicators Amazon’s curiosity in growing wearable AI units, a distinct avenue from its voice-controlled residence assistant merchandise like its line of Echo audio system. ChatGPT maker OpenAI is working by itself AI {hardware}, whereas Meta is integrating its AI into its good glasses. Apple is rumored to be engaged on AI-powered good glasses as properly.
These merchandise include a lot of safety and privateness dangers, on condition that they document all the things round them; totally different corporations’ insurance policies will differ when it comes to how voice recordings are processed, saved, and used for AI coaching.
In its present privateness insurance policies, Bee says that customers can delete their information at any time, and that audio recordings are usually not saved, saved, or used for AI coaching. The app does retailer information that the AI learns concerning the consumer, nevertheless, which is the way it can operate as an assistant.
Bee beforehand indicated that it deliberate to solely document the voices of people that have verbally consented. Bee additionally says it’s engaged on a function to permit customers to outline boundaries — each primarily based on matter and placement — that can routinely pause the system’s studying. The corporate additionally famous that it plans to construct on-device AI processing, which typically poses much less of a privateness danger than processing information within the cloud.
It’s not clear if these insurance policies will change as Bee is built-in into Amazon, nevertheless — and Amazon has a combined document on the dealing with of consumer information from its clients’ units.
Up to now, Amazon shared footage with regulation enforcement from folks’s private Ring safety cameras, with neither the proprietor’s consent, nor a warrant. Ring additionally settled claims in 2023 introduced by the Federal Commerce Fee that workers and contractors had broad and unrestricted entry to clients’ movies.