Amazon buys wearable AI startup Bee, a wrist device that hears and transcribes every word you speak
The announcement was made by Bee CEO Maria de Lourdes Zollo on LinkedIn who wrote she "couldn't think of better partners to help us bring truly personal, agentic AI to even more customers."
Amazon confirmed the acquisition in an email to Tom's Guide, though noted that the deal "isn't closed yet" and the two entities are still two companies.
What is Bee?
(Image credit: Bee)
Bee is a recent startup that makes a $49.99 Fitbit-esque wrist device, dubbed the Bio Pioneer edition that is still in preorder and slated to launch in September.
The device is meant to listen to your conversations through your day and then use AI to transcribe everything said by and around you. From there the AI agent will generate personalized summaries of your day plus reminders and suggestions in the Bee app.
You can also let the Bee access your calendar, contacts, emails, location, photos and reminders to help the AI's insights and send information.
With Amazon, we were told that Bee is working on a number of new features to "provide even greater control over" their devices.
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"We're excited to partner with the Bee team to continue inventing in this space," Amazon spokesperson Alexandra Miller said in an email.
Is it any good?
(Image credit: Bee)
Some have tried out the device, The Verge's Victoria Song went hands on with the Bee and described it as a "glimmer of a good idea." She was skeptical that we need to record our conversations all the time and found that it confused real-life conversations with media playing in the background.
Plus, there are privacy concerns around Bee, though Lourdes has said previously that Bee doesn't store any recordings. Before pre-sales opened the company emphasized that they wanted to profit via device sales and subscriptions.
However, compared to the Humane AI Pin, Rabbit R1 and Friend pendant, Song did say the Bee is the "most successful AI wearable" she's tried with the cavaet that it's a very low bar.
We reached out to Bee for comment on how it plans to partner with Amazon and its goals with the new partnership. They have not responded as of publication but we will update if they do.
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