Amazon could have simply discovered its personal model of Fitbit.
Effectively, type of, anyway, within the sense that it simply purchased an organization that makes wearables to your wrist. That firm is Bee, a startup that makes a $50 AI wearable. Bee co-founder and CEO Maria de Lourdes Zollo introduced the acquisition in a publish on LinkedIn this week, and Amazon confirmed the deal in an announcement to TechCrunch, which famous that the deal remains to be being finalized. The phrases of the deal usually are not but public on the time of writing.
As of Wednesday, the Bee web site included an announcement that learn, “Bee is joining Amazon! We’re incredibly grateful to our customers and community and we’re excited to continue our journey with you.”
So, what the heck is Bee?
Mashable Gentle Pace
The startup makes a $50, screen-free, always-on, AI-powered wearable microphone you could put on in your wrist or clip to your clothes. It seems a little bit like a Fitbit health tracker, besides this wearable is all the time listening (except you manually mute it) and gathering knowledge in your duties, habits, and relationships. Utilizing this knowledge, Bee can create to-do lists and day by day summaries for you in a cell app.
Credit score: Bee
There are some fascinating implications right here. One is that Amazon could be wanting into wearables and transportable AI assistants, which till now have largely lived in Alexa-powered gadgets which can be rooted at residence. One other maybe extra vital concern is that of privateness; these gadgets are all the time listening by design, making them potential privateness nightmares.
In line with Bee’s insurance policies, the corporate would not retailer any audio knowledge on servers and customers can delete their private knowledge. Amazon’s plans for Bee are unknown, however Echo gadgets just lately stopped permitting for native storage, and Ring has a controversial historical past with privateness.
Whereas large corporations like Amazon and OpenAI are investing in AI gadgets, this product class has struggled to draw precise prospects. Simply consider high-profile failures just like the Rabbit R1 and the Humane AI pin. These gadgets each value lots of of {dollars}, whereas Bee’s machine is simply $50, so possibly Bee could make headway the place Rabbit and Humane couldn’t. At any fee, Silicon Valley is not executed attempting.
In a publish on Linkedin, Zollo wrote, “Bee is joining Amazon and we couldn’t be more excited! When we started Bee, we imagined a world where AI is truly personal, where your life is understood and enhanced by technology that learns with you. What began as a dream with an incredible team and community now finds a new home at Amazon.”
