At the beginning of this year, we asked the question: if AGI (General Artificial Intelligence) arrives, how will it hit us? Will we witness a Big Bang, or will it be a more understated event? A bunch of nerds talking to a phone in a casual living room setting, perhaps, just like the launch of ChatGPT 4o?
The flirty personal assistant is, at the moment, trapped in a smartphone. But what if there was a device that, instead of distracting you, helped you become more present in the human experience?
The first slate of AI gadgets promises precisely that. Virtual Assistants in a dedicated piece of tech that you can carry around all day. The problem with these first-generation devices is that they are remarkably janky, uniting tech reviewers who love to hate them. Let’s break down what they are and what the hell is wrong with them.
3 AI gadgets that suck
and 3 that don’t
3 AI gadgets that suck and 3 that don’t
The Humane AI pin—you can wear it like a Star Trek communicator, pinned on your shirt. Talk to it, and it should answer all your questions. It has a camera so it sees what you see and a little projector that projects information on your hand because why not?
Why does it suck? It only works as it is supposed to when their CEO shows it off in their slick tech demo. it’s too bulky and heavy to be worn on everyday clothing unless you change your whole wardrobe to Star Trek onesies.
The Rabbit R1 is a cute orange plastic box with a screen, a scroll wheel, and a camera. It’s designed by Teenage Engineering, so it looks great in thumbnails of YouTube videos. Unfortunately, it disappoints at everything else.
Why does it suck? It’s slow; the touchscreen can’t be touched, the scroll wheel scrolls slowly, and the device hallucinates like it’s on acid. You look at it and can’t help but think ‘This would be so much better if it were an App on your phone.’
Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses
They come in a Ray-Ban form factor. They connect to your phone, so it’s more like a peripheral as the phone computes your interactions. It has a camera and a microphone, so you can speak to your glasses, and the world around you is painfully aware of that, as with the other two products.
Why does it suck? It’s from Meta.
All of the 3 devices drain their battery fast, and none of them fulfill their promise.
So, in the absence of the one true killer device, we invented our own.
Bear with us.
Einstein Around My Neck
- by Tom
Einstein Around My Neck - by Tom
I once arrived late at a party and introduced myself to someone. We had a five-minute chat, and then I moved on to speak with others. Ten minutes later, the person I had just met came by to say goodbye. When she extended her hand to me, I said, “Hi, I’m Tom. Nice to meet you.” Awkward. Very awkward.
I forget things all the time, including what I learn and read and whom I’ve just met. The people around me might enjoy it if I remembered their names for once. I want an Einstein around my neck that pieces together my experiences and learnings into what makes me, me, but better.
Extend My Reality
- by Jan
Extend My Reality - by Jan
Picture this: no more searching for the yogurt in the fridge while your spouse sighs and mutters about men never finding anything—this tech will point you to it. It might also navigate you through your cluttered garage so you stop tripping on that rake and looking for those keys, phone, or remote. This AI miracle could even interpret your doctor’s handwriting. With this superpower, you might end the age-old myth that says men are fridge-blind.
Don’t Panic Button
- by Georg
Don’t Panic Button - by Georg
Whenever I feel the onset of a Panic Attack, I press a button on my ear, and a soothing voice delivers real-time psychoanalysis tailored to my anxieties.
Should you panic?
Sometimes, companies genuinely believe in their technology’s potential and expect that early adopters will be patient while they work out the initial kinks through software updates. Don’t be that person.
Hyper curate your life with
personalized assistants
Hyper curate your life with personalized assistants
For the foreseeable future, we will see AIs spawn on smartphones as a feature. Apple recently showed off its vision with Apple Intelligence to be launched in fall.
In parallel many bizarre AI-first devices will see the light of day until a form factor floats to the top that we will take with us, like the smartphones of today.
These devices will continuously learn from you, your experiences, and your biases. The hyper-curated LLMs of today—large Language Models like GPT 4o or Gemini—will make way for personalized assistants.
The personalized learning process will not be solely through text but multimodal through sensor data on your device, including images, sounds, and videos that you experience or create. These devices will deliver messages close to you, inside your field of vision and hearing.
They will filter out the noise and execute what you want or need in real-time. They will have your news report ready, shop for your dietary restrictions, and help you write your emails in your own voice and humor.
Should you panic?
😉
That’s it for this fourth newsletter. Please do let us know what you think and Don’t Panic.
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Photo credits:
Midjourney, and the millions of artists it has been trained on.
