Amazon acquires Bee, the AI wearable that records everything you say
In a significant move reshaping the future of personal AI, Amazon has announced its acquisition of Bee, an innovative AI wearables startup. The news, initially confirmed via a LinkedIn post by Bee co-founder Maria de Lourdes Zollo and subsequently validated by Amazon to TechCrunch, signals Amazon’s deepening commitment to ambient intelligence beyond its established Echo ecosystem. While the deal is yet to officially close, it has already set a new trajectory for the burgeoning AI wearable market.
Bee has garnered attention for its unique approach to personal assistance, having raised $7 million last year. Its flagship product is a sleek, Fitbit-like bracelet retailing at $49.99, complemented by a $19 per month subscription, alongside an Apple Watch application. The device’s core functionality is its ability to record surrounding audio, creating reminders and to-do lists for the user unless manually muted. Bee’s ambitious vision extends to developing a “cloud phone” – a digital twin of a user’s smartphone, granting the Bee device access to accounts and notifications to deliver timely alerts and facilitate communication.
The company articulates its philosophy as fostering a “personal, ambient intelligence that feels less like a tool and more like a trusted companion. One that helps you reflect, remember, and move through the world more freely.” This aspiration positions Bee squarely within a competitive landscape that has seen other players like Rabbit and Humane AI struggle to gain traction with their AI-enabled wearables. However, Bee’s accessible $50 price point offers a lower barrier to entry for curious consumers, a stark contrast to the ill-fated Humane AI Pin’s $499 tag.
This acquisition underscores Amazon’s strategic interest in expanding its reach into wearable AI devices. It represents a pivot from its traditional voice-controlled home assistants, placing Amazon among tech giants like OpenAI, Meta, and Apple, all rumored or actively developing their own AI hardware, smart glasses, or integrated AI solutions. Amazon has extended job offers to Bee employees, integrating their expertise into its vast organization.
However, the proliferation of devices capable of constant recording inevitably raises significant security and privacy concerns. The critical questions revolve around how voice recordings are processed, stored, and utilized for AI training. Bee’s current privacy policies stipulate that users can delete their data at any time, and crucially, audio recordings are neither saved, stored, nor used for AI training. While the app does retain data learned about the user to function as an assistant, Bee has indicated plans to only record voices with verbal consent and to introduce features allowing users to define boundaries based on topic and location, automatically pausing the device’s learning. Furthermore, Bee aims to build on-device AI processing, which generally minimizes privacy risks compared to cloud-based data processing.
The integration of Bee into Amazon’s ecosystem raises pertinent questions regarding the potential evolution of these privacy policies. Amazon’s track record on handling user data from its devices is mixed. Notably, in the past, Amazon’s Ring security camera division faced scrutiny for sharing footage with law enforcement without user consent or warrants. Moreover, in 2023, Ring settled claims brought by the Federal Trade Commission regarding broad and unrestricted access by employees and contractors to customers’ videos. This history emphasizes the ongoing importance of transparency and robust privacy safeguards as AI wearables become more ubiquitous.
