Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses
Yuan
Shoppers looking for gadgets and gizmos powered by generative artificial intelligence technology to gift to their loved ones won’t have much choice this holiday season.
Generative AI has taken Silicon Valley by storm since its launch OpenAI’s ChatGPT The chatbot will be launched in November 2022. NVIDIA processors to train artificial intelligence models, and few companies are offering new hardware focused on new-age technologies.
Paul Gagnon, vice president at analytics firm Circana, said there was great optimism about the potential of GenAI devices at the CES trade show in January. Gagnon said products from well-known startups like Humane and Rabbit, which are marketed as being able to translate, answer questions, voice memos and set alarms, are particularly compelling.
But many of the new GenAI devices don’t live up to expectations, and critics say they’re lame. slow and too easy fail.
“As we’ve gone through the year, we’ve had some difficulty communicating those promises to consumers – which, to be honest, were quite vague to begin with,” Gagnon said.
Ben Bajarin, CEO of Creative Strategies, said that a key reason why GenAI hardware has not yet achieved a breakthrough is that current devices are “compute constrained,” meaning they require more powerful silicon chips and related components to perform better, especially when compared to smart devices. Compared to mobile phones.
Additionally, consumers may find current GenAI devices too expensive, and they may be confused about what the devices actually do, he said.
GenAI devices such as Ray-Ban Yuan Smart glasses also typically require a smartphone connection to run the accompanying apps and a strong Internet connection, Bajarin said, because a poor Internet connection can cause performance delays that can frustrate people.
Although companies such as Microsoft, apple, Intel, Dell and Lenovo Ryan Reith, vice president of IDC’s mobile device program, said that while the company is also heavily promoting a new line of PCs capable of performing GenAI tasks, consumers have yet to agitate for such sales.
“I don’t think there’s really a need for consumers to go out and buy a more expensive computer,” Reese said, noting that people may be confused as to why they need a more powerful computer when they already have access to tools like ChatGPT through their current computer computer.
Bajarin said the reality is that although GenAI has attracted the attention of Silicon Valley, it is still at “ground zero” in terms of widespread adoption.
“While I could rattle off all these productivity statistics about how people are using artificial intelligence today, that’s a small minority of the population,” he said. “It’s not mainstream.”
Steve Koenig, vice president of research at the Consumer Technology Association, which hosts CES, said consumers may not see a “big explosion” of GenAI computers, smartphones and new products until 2025.
While Silicon Valley hasn’t had a breakout year for GenAI hardware, there are some GenAI devices available for purchase by early adopters.
Ray-Ban Meta glasses
Meta released its second-generation Ray-Ban smart glasses in 2023, but the company began rolling out GenAI capabilities for the device earlier this year, announcing a number of new AI features at its Connect event in September.
The glasses don’t provide users with augmented reality capabilities, but people can use the device to take photos, listen to music and ask the Meta AI digital assistant for information about things in their field of vision.
For example, using the device’s microphone and camera, users can ask the Meta AI digital assistant to recommend recipes while walking through grocery store aisles and scanning shelves, the company said in a statement. blog post.
Meta, the maker of Facebook and Instagram, is selling certain versions of the glasses for 20 percent off until December 2. , instead of $299.
rabbit r1
The Rabbit r1 is a $200 gadget that looks like a small orange tablet with a playful aesthetic that’s more like a Nintendo Switch than an Apple iPad.
Equipped with a camera and dual microphones, r1 can record audio clips and set timers or perform more advanced tasks, such as helping users recall past conversations, search results, and details from recordings. After the device started shipping in March, reviewers critical The r1 performed poorly on a variety of tasks and failed to outperform smartphones that could do many of the same things.
Rabbit CEO Jesse Lyu told CNBC in a statement that the startup “used this feedback to quickly make very significant improvements to the user experience” and released dozens of updates to improve it.
Despite the harsh criticism, Rabbit “has sold over 100,000 r1 devices, compared to the 3,000 we originally expected to sell” and the company is “seeing return rates below 5%, which is very low for a first-generation product.” Stablize”. Lu said.
Rabbit is currently running a deal where customers can get free shipping or $15 off if they order the r1 before December 4th.
bee
After raising $7 million in funding in July, startup Bee AI will start selling its GenAI device Bee on Friday.
The Bee looks like a connected smartwatch and functions like a high-end digital assistant. Bee AI CEO Maria de Lourdes Zollo told CNBC that its dual microphones allow it to listen and analyze people’s voice memos and conversations to provide summaries and to-do lists.
Bee can also integrate with healthcare tools and people’s Google and Gmail accounts to help generate personalized summaries and action items, Zollo said. While the startup offers a Bee app for the Apple Watch for people who don’t want to buy another piece of hardware, she said the core Bee device is better at understanding sounds in noisy environments.
Shoppers can buy the Bee for $49.99 and get its basic mission, but they’ll have to pay a $15 monthly subscription fee to get more features, such as “better memory or better functionality,” Zollo said.
On Black Friday, Bee is offering shoppers three months of free device subscriptions. Zolo said the device should be shipping in time for Christmas.
watch: Ex-Apple designer launches $700 human-friendly AI Pin as smartphone replacement.
