Amazon acquires Bee, the AI wearable that records everything you say
Amazon has acquired the AI Wearables Startup Bee, according to a LinkedIn after by bees co-founder Maria de Lourdes Zollo. Amazon confirmed the acquisition to WAN, but noted that the deal has not yet been closed.
Bee, which picked up $ 7 million last year, makes both an independent Fitbit-like bracelet (which sells for $ 49.99, plus a $ 19 subscription a month) and an Apple Watch app. The product records everything that hears the user manually damping the damping to listen to conversations to make memories and task lists for the user.
Zollo told WAN last year that the company hopes to make a “Cloud telephone” or a mirror of your phone that gives the personal bee device access to the user accounts and notes, making it possible to get memories of events or messages.
“We believe that everyone should have access to a personal, ambient intelligence that feels less like a tool and more as a trusted companion. One that helps you to reflect, remember and continue more freely through the world,” bees claims On her website.
Other companies such as Rabbit and Humane AI have tried to make AI-compatible wearables like this, but have not found much success so far. But for a price of $ 50, Bee devices are more accessible for a curious consumer who does not want to do a major financial obligation. (The fatal human AI-pin was $ 499.)
A Amazon spokesperson told WAN that Bee -Employees received offers to become a member of Amazon.
This acquisition indicates Amazon’s interest in developing portable AI devices, another path of its speech-driven home assistant products, such as the line of Echo speakers. Chatgpt Maker OpenAi works on his own AI hardware, while Meta integrates his AI into his smart glasses. The rumor is that Apple also works on AI-driven smart glasses.
These products are supplied with a number of security and privacy risks, since they take everything around them; The policy of different companies will vary in terms of how speech recordings are processed, stored and used for AI training.
In Current privacy policyBee says that users can remove their data at any time and that audio -recordings are not stored, stored or used for AI training. The app stores data that the AI learns about the user, however, and that is how it can function as an assistant.
Bee previously indicated that it intended to give only the voices of people who have verbally permission. Bee also says it is working on a function to enable users to define boundaries – both based on the subject and location – that automatically pause the learning of the device. The company noted that it is planning to build AI processing of the devices, which generally is less a privacy risk than processing data in the cloud.
However, it is not clear whether this policy will change, since bees is integrated into Amazon – and Amazon has a mixed record about the treatment of user data of the devices of its customers.
In the past, Amazon Shared images With law enforcement of the personal ring protection cameras of people, with neither the permission of the owner, nor an order. Ring also arranged claims in 2023 by the Federal Trade Commission that employees and contractors had wide and unlimited access to videos of customers.
