Amazon has acquired the AI wearables startup Bee, in line with a LinkedIn submit by Bee co-founder Maria de Lourdes Zollo. Amazon confirmed the acquisition to iinfoai however famous that the deal has not but closed.
Bee, which raised $7 million final yr, makes each a stand-alone Fitbit-like bracelet (which retails for $49.99, plus a $19-per-month subscription) and an Apple Watch app. The product data every little thing it hears — except the person manually mutes it — with the aim of listening to conversations to create reminders and to-do lists for the person.
Zollo instructed iinfoai final yr that the corporate hopes to create a “cloud cellphone,” or a mirror of your cellphone that offers the non-public Bee gadget entry to the person’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 instrument and extra like a trusted companion. One which helps you mirror, bear in mind, and transfer by means of 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 so far. However at a $50 worth level, Bee’s gadgets are extra cost-accessible to a curious client who doesn’t need to make an enormous monetary dedication. (The ill-fated Humane AI Pin was $499.)
An Amazon spokesperson instructed iinfoai that Bee staff obtained affords to affix Amazon.
This acquisition indicators Amazon’s curiosity in creating wearable AI gadgets, a distinct avenue from its voice-controlled dwelling 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 sensible glasses. Apple is rumored to be engaged on AI-powered sensible glasses as nicely.
These merchandise include quite a few safety and privateness dangers, on condition that they document every little thing 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 will not be saved, saved, or used for AI coaching. The app does retailer information that the AI learns concerning the person, nevertheless, which is the way it can perform 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 characteristic to permit customers to outline boundaries — each based mostly on subject and placement — that may mechanically pause the gadget’s studying. The corporate famous that it plans to construct on-device AI processing, which usually poses much less of a privateness threat 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 blended document on the dealing with of person information from its clients’ gadgets.
Up to now, Amazon shared footage with regulation enforcement from individuals’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 staff and contractors had broad and unrestricted entry to clients’ movies.
