Hands-on with Bee, Amazon’s latest AI wearable

In early testing with a rating unit of Beewe found the device itself to be easy to use. With just the touch of a button you can turn recording on or off. In the app, you can configure whether a double press bookmarks part of the conversation, processes the current conversation, or both, and you can set whether a press-and-hold gesture lets you leave a voice note or chat with the AI ​​assistant. (Bee’s companion app currently reminds you to turn on voice notes, and we did just that.)

Like many other AI products and services, such as Plaud, Granola, Understand, Fireflies, Otterand more, Bee can listen to, record and transcribe audio conversations. Where it differs is that instead of providing an overview or a raw transcript, it segments the audio into sections and summarizes each part. For example, an interview can be divided into sections such as the introduction, key product details, an overview of industry trends, and whatever else you talked about.

Each section is tinted with a different background color to make them easier to distinguish as you scroll. You can tap on an individual section to see the exact transcription.

It wasn’t immediately clear how to label the speakers in the app. We learned that we could tap on part of the conversation to confirm if we were the speaker, but this lagged behind other professional AI transcribers, where each speaker could be tagged. Additionally, Bee discards the audio after transcription, making it a non-starter for use cases where you need to play the audio to ensure accuracy.

That said, Bee isn’t necessarily intended as a working tool. Amazon sees this as an AI that can live next to you while you go about your day. By integrating with Google’s services, Bee can link a recorded conversation to a task. For example, after meeting someone at a conference, this might suggest that you become friends with them on LinkedIn or research their product.

You can also leave voice notes, as an alternative to writing something down in your notes app, for example.

Another section of Bee’s app lets you look back on past days’ memories, while a ‘Grow’ section offers insights as it learns more about you. You can also confirm and complete a ‘facts’ section about yourself, which is somewhat equivalent to other AI chatbots’ ability to remember the things you’ve discussed.

Amazon says it will deliver more features for Bee in the coming year.

Bee is not always listening by default, which is why rival wearables love it the Friend AI pendant saw slack. Instead, you’re supposed to ask if you can record someone’s conversation (unless at some public event, where recording is already expected).

When you do answer, a green light turns on, alerting others that the device is in use.

Bee’s sports band was a little weak. The band fell off twice while being worn, both times while just sitting and not moving the hands much (like in a taxi). We have not tested the clip-on pin yet, but it feels sturdier.

Overall, the mobile app design is far ahead of the apps Amazon has built in-house, such as the Alexa mobile experience, and is easy to use. But the premise that we specifically need an AI to record conversations to learn more about us remains largely untested. Is there a world where such devices make sense for consumers who don’t record in professional environments such as meetings and interviews?

And if AI listening devices become mainstream, there will also have to be some sort of cultural shift in terms of what is appropriate and what is not. These days it’s somewhat looked down upon to record videos of regular people going about their lives, even though it’s technically legal if they’re in public; Likewise, it could be considered tacky or distasteful to record audio with an AI device if you don’t ask permission first.

Of course, not everyone will adhere to that social contract, which could allow people to self-censor their statements in public.

For example, at CES we were talking to a representative at the Soundcore booth. If they liked something I said about a competitor’s product, they would joke, “Say that louder into my microphone,” pointing to the AI ​​device already recording, subtly pinned to their shirt. It was a strange experience to realize that anything said in the real world could one day be ‘on the record’, whether you agreed to it or not.

Bee’s traction – or lack thereof – will help Amazon determine whether that’s a world consumers actually want.