Amazon emblem on a brick constructing exterior in San Francisco on Aug. 20, 2024.
Smith Assortment | Gado | Archive Images | Getty Pictures
Amazon plans to accumulate wearables startup Bee AI, the corporate confirmed, within the instagram instance of tech giants doubling down on generative artificial intelligence.
Bee, based mostly in San Francisco, makes a $49.99 wristband that seems much like a Fitbit smartwatch. The device is supplied with AI and microphones that may take heed to and analyze conversations to offer summaries, to-do lists and reminders for on a regular basis duties.
Bee CEO Maria de Lourdes Zollo introduced in a LinkedIn post on Tuesday that the corporate will be part of Amazon.
“Once we began Bee, we imagined a world the place AI is really private, the place your life is known and enhanced by know-how that learns with you,” Zollo wrote. “What started as a dream with an unbelievable crew and neighborhood now finds a brand new house at Amazon.”
Amazon spokesperson Alexandra Miller confirmed the corporate’s plans to accumulate Bee. The corporate declined to touch upon the phrases of the deal.
Amazon has launched a flurry of AI merchandise, together with its personal set of Nova fashions, Trainium chips, a buying chatbot and a market for third-party fashions known as Bedrock.
The corporate has additionally overhauled its Alexa voice assistant, launched greater than a decade in the past, with AI capabilities as Amazon appears to be like to chip away on the success of rivals reminiscent of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini.
Ring, the sensible house safety firm owned by Amazon, has additionally seemed to introduce generative AI in a few of its merchandise.
Amazon beforehand experimented within the wearables house by means of a well being and fitness-focused product known as Halo. It sundown the Halo in 2023 as a part of a broader cost-cutting evaluation.
Different tech firms have launched AI-infused client {hardware} with blended success.
There’s the Rabbit R1, a small sq. gadget that prices $199 and makes use of an OpenAI mannequin to reply questions, in addition to the AI pin developed by Humane, which later offered to HP.
Meta‘s Ray-Ban sensible glasses have grown in recognition for the reason that first model was launched in 2021.
OpenAI in Might acquired Jony Ive‘s AI units startup io for roughly $6.4 billion. The corporate reportedly plans to develop a screen-free gadget.
