Bee is a bracelet capable of recording every word pronounced around you. He promises to be your personal assistant, but already raises doubts about privacy.
Bee is a bracelet with integrated artificial intelligence, capable of recording every word pronounced around the wearer. A device intended to discuss especially on privacy. The goal is obviously not to spy on, but to have an always active assistant, capable of transforming conversations into a reminder, lists of things to do or messages to be sent.
Proposed at an affordable cost (about 50 dollars, plus a monthly subscription), Bee is also an App for Apple Watch and aims to become a “Cloud Phone”, a copy of your smartphone. Amazon, after having colonized the houses with Alexa and the Echo speakers, now tries the personal mobility card, competing with Meta, Openii and perhaps Apple.
How it works. Bee carries to the wrist like a normal fitness bracelet, but instead of counting the steps “counts” the words, ours and others. If it is not disabled manually, in fact, records the significant phrases to transform them into useful notifications: an appointment mentioned on the fly, the shopping list called aloud or a reminder born from a chat. Thanks to access to accounts and notifications of the smartphone, it can manage calendars, send messages or remember deadlines.
The system promises to work as a discreet companion that observes and stores without interruption. All this without the need for complex screens or inputs, making the experience more immediate than traditional smart speakers and smartwatch.
Privacy. Such an invasive technology, however, can only raise questions about the delicate theme of confidentiality. According to the current policies, Bee does not save or archive audio recordings, nor uses them to train IA models: what remains stored is only the knowledge derived from the interaction with the user, necessary to guarantee personalized answers.
In addition, a function is in development that will allow them to establish “thematic or geographical” areas of silence “, in which the device automatically stops listening. However, it remains to be understood if these guarantees will be maintained once under the Amazon management, which in the past has not shone in the matter of data protection: just think of the criticisms rained for the not always transparent use of the videos of the ring cameras.
Open market. Bee’s challenge concerns a sector where others have already failed: the device Humane at the pinfor example, launched with great hype, cost ten times more and has not convinced the public. The low price of Amazon’s bracelet could instead attract curious consumers, less wary of an object that listens uninterruptedly.
If the model is successful, it could inaugurate a new generation of intelligent Wearable, capable of replacing typical smartphone functions with a more natural interaction. Future developments will depend on the balance that will be achieved between utility and trust: only if Bee will be perceived as a discreet and reliable ally, Amazon can be able to transform an idea so far marginal into a planetary success.