A new AI-fuelled gadget has fallen foul of the tech world's expectations.
  • xodoh74984@lemmy.worldEnglish
    121·
    5 months ago

    Who exactly was hyped about this?

    Personally, I typically want my interactions with technology to be quiet. I don’t want it talking, and I don’t want to be talking to it.

    Not to mention the privacy implications of an always-on camera and microphone connected to the internet

  • blattrules@lemmy.worldEnglish
    551·
    5 months ago

    I could have told them this was a dumb idea from the start; creating something that doesn’t fill a need, is just another device to carry around and could just be an app on a phone that we already carry around, just to cram it down people’s throats “because AI,” is probably not a good business plan.

    • realitista@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      17·
      5 months ago

      It got funded to the tune of $240m. Which was probably about as far as they thought this through.

      • blattrules@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        5 months ago

        Wow, I didn’t even realize that it requires a $24.99 per month plan from T-Mobile for voice, texting and data. These companies are getting really brazen.

    • toofpic@lemmy.worldEnglish
      62·
      5 months ago

      If you add a strap to it, it will be smartwatch. So there’s a need and a niche, just not for one more way to do the same stuff

        • toofpic@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          5 months ago

          This is exactly what I meant: they’re selling a watch without a strap, and saying it’s something new

        • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          2·
          5 months ago

          How are you going to sell that? It already exists, so it won’t draw venture capital that you can siphon off until the whole thing collapses.

    • flop_leash_973@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      5 months ago

      This pretty well describes smart watches in my mind outside of those that need to keep track of certain vitals all of the time as well.

      • blattrules@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        5 months ago

        I used to feel the same, but they do fit a bit of a need for me. They work great as a silent alarm so you don’t wake up anyone else in your room, you don’t have to take your phone out to check time or notifications, and health and fitness tracking is better than what a phone can offer.

  • callmepk@lemmy.worldEnglish
    52·
    5 months ago

    Business people see the word AI mentioned in the products: invest invest invest! Business people see AI products hit with honest tech reviews: thoSe PEAsants aRE RUIning ThE InnOVATIOn

    • thehatfox@lemmy.worldEnglish
      81·
      5 months ago

      Terrible products like this might end poisoning the well for genuinely useful AI projects further down the line. “AI” will loose it’s buzz and instead become synonymous with failure to consumers and investors alike.

  • JeffreyOrange@lemmy.worldEnglish
    36·
    5 months ago

    “much hyped” lol I have seen not one person who was positively looking forward to this. I don’t really know why such dead in the water stupid idead even get any media attention at all.

    • yuri@pawb.socialEnglish
      35·
      5 months ago

      I thought it sounded neat, but I’m actively looking for a fun way to ditch regular smartphones. As soon as that rotary cell phone works on regular networks, I’m there.

      • JeffreyOrange@lemmy.worldEnglish
        51·
        5 months ago

        I guess if the AI works well, it could have some niche uses. But as far as I have seen it doesn’t. It is also more marketed as a smartphone replacement, which for the vast majority of people it just wouldn’t be. Also the demo examples like booking flights are just moronic.

        • yuri@pawb.socialEnglish
          31·
          5 months ago

          Yeah the product they delivered is clearly not what was promised. I lost interest as soon as the subscription model was made obvious.

          Personally I’d just like my phone to allow others to contact me and search the internet, that’s all. I don’t need to text constantly, and other than lemmy I have no social media presence. Laser-display voice-control smart-broach actually fits the bill for me, provided it actually fucken worked at all lmao

          Also I just really like weird or novel tech. I was an early supporter of pebble and the only thing I regret there is not buying doubles.

          • JeffreyOrange@lemmy.worldEnglish
            10·
            5 months ago

            I honestly dislike voice control very much. Would be pretty annoying to constantly have people around who are talking to their devices. It’s already jarring enough when you are a gust at somebodys home and they scream at their alexa every couple minutes, ruins the mood a little bit.

            • yuri@pawb.socialEnglish
              41·
              5 months ago

              God I hadn’t even considered what “voice control only” would mean for public spaces. You’re right, that sounds like a nightmare.

  • snekerpimp@lemmy.worldEnglish
    30·
    5 months ago

    Ummm… really? The technology is nowhere near the hype they are putting behind it. Just some AI snake oil salesmen. The next few years will be filled with “ai” e-waste as people use the buzzword to sell garbage.

  • Fisk400@feddit.nuEnglish
    242·
    5 months ago

    Major problem with the gadget is the same as all AI. You can tell it to perform tasks as long as the task doesn’t have any specific requirements to how you want it done and if you inevitably do have requirements its faster to do it yourself.

      • Fisk400@feddit.nuEnglish
        47·
        5 months ago

        It works as well as any other AI product. The reason this works particularly bad is because it fully relies on the AI to function.

        • Diplomjodler@lemmy.worldEnglish
          122·
          5 months ago

          There are a lot of AI products that work very well. Only people usually stop calling it AI once it works.

        • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
          2·
          5 months ago

          The AI that this product contains is especially bad. It’s slow, often just doesn’t work, and cannot do simple things like speech recognition at all reliably

      • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        5 months ago

        My favorite was their calling their shield upscaling algorithm “AI”. It’s a fixed non-dynamic algorithm like any other, but they did use AI to make rapid iterative improvements during the development of the algorithm.

        • snekerpimp@lemmy.worldEnglish
          11·
          5 months ago

          Current LLMs agi are no where near what a definition of “AI” is, yet all are being market as “AI”. It is just a buzzword. Like “synergy” and “cloud”. It has lost its meaning.

          edit: confuzzled my buzzwords