Relaunched discreetly by Amazon, the Bee has only one button, no screen or speaker: it listens continuously, summarizes exchanges and offers actions. Mr. G. Siegler finds him bluffing and disturbing.
A few weeks ago, Amazon relaunched the Bee, a small portable device resulting from the acquisition of the startup of the same name, sold for $75. The principle is minimalist: a single button to activate or mute listening, no screen or audio output. The device is not used to dialogue with a chatbot: it captures the conversations of its wearer and interlocutors, then the application draws summaries, key points and suggestions for follow-up.
Effective to the point of disturbance
In his column on Spyglass, M.G. Siegler recounts that after a short learning of his voice, the Bee identified his family members, their first names and their needs on his own, without him having recorded them. He cites a dispute with a hotel about a drink he had not ordered: the summary of the exchange with the bartender proved him right. The summaries are not perfect, but are more than enough as a reminder.
The author sees this as a foretaste of the products to come — Meta's Muse Charm, OpenAI's device designed with Jony Ive, a feature announced for the Apple Watch — and wonders if Amazon is deliberately downplaying the event: an object that constantly records those around it risks social rejection comparable to that already suffered by Meta's Ray-Ban glasses, regardless of the privacy guarantees displayed.
Read the full article on the original source
Go to the source →