Amazon acquires Bee, the AI wearable that records everything you say

[highplainsdem]

Source: TechCrunch

Amazon has acquired the AI wearables startup Bee, according to a LinkedIn post by Bee co-founder Maria de Loudres Zollo. Amazon confirmed the acquisition to TechCrunch, but noted that the deal has not yet closed.

Bee, which raised $7 million last year, makes both a standalone Fitbit-like bracelet (which retails for $49.99, plus a $19-per-month subscription) and an Apple Watch app. The product records everything it hears — unless the user manually mutes it — with the goal of listening to conversations to create reminders and to-do lists for the user.

Zollo told TechCrunch last year that the company hopes to create a “cloud phone,” or a mirror of your phone that gives the personal Bee device access to the user’s accounts and notifications, making it possible to get reminders about events or send messages.

“We believe everyone should have access to 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,” Bee claims on its website.

-snip-



Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/22/amazon-acquires-bee-the-ai-wearable-that-records-everything-you-say/

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Much more at the link, including that there are "a number of security and privacy risks" (ya think?) and that "Amazon has a mixed record on the handling of user data" (no kidding).

[SheltieLover]

1. What could go wrong?

[Joinfortmill]

2. Next we'll be using wearable brains.

[Javaman]

3. well, most of the breathing public don't use theirs anyway...

[HarryM]

24. I think not... more like

wearable lobotomies. It would be a great assistance to the ruling class. They could more easily control the masses.

[dweller]

4. Great

Now I’ll have X rated clothing
🤬



✌🏻

[walkingman]

5. Welcome to zombie land....at this rate the dystopian BS is going we will not recognize the US soon.

Poor kids are gonna be living is a world that makes the "Handmaid's Tale" look like utopia.

We simply do not have the mental capacity to deal with technology. It is becoming obvious.

[Hekate]

6. Ewwwww

[Karasu]

7. Should be illegal to even create such a product in the first place. End-stage capitalism has no bottom.

[hatrack]

8. What possible or even theoretical usefulness does bullshit technology like this have?

$7 million? Shit, people are even dumber than I thought, and I didn't rate them too highly already.

[Igel]

9. What a truly horrible idea.

But I know all kinds of people who'll immediately say, "Ooooh ... I need one."

On edit: And just great, it's already risky saying anything in a classroom that could be taken out of context or misinterpreted.

Beginning to think all students must enter through metal detectors which, without prior notice, emit sufficiently large but reasonably well channeled EMPs a 0.1 s intervals.

[msongs]

10. New! record everyone you know without their knowledge or consent. endorsed by ICE nt

[eppur_se_muova]

11. Divorce lawyers rejoice.

Should have named it "Fly" -- as in, "how'd you like to be a fly on that wall?". Well, now you can !

[Captain Zero]

30. Not so new. For years there have been usb thumb drives that do this.

I bought one probably ten years ago online.
USB thumb drive with a battery on board.
Just carry it in your shirt pocket or lay it around your laptop or coffee cup.
There was a switch to make it voice activated or just continuous record for about 2 hours.
I took it to a couple of group meetings. For me, the recordings was just as boring as the meetings that I got invited to.

It's in my stuff somewhere. If you search around Amazon you can probably still buy one.

[Bettie]

12. Oh, most of what I say should never, ever

be recorded.

Who thinks that their every utterance is so important that it must be recorded?

[Harker]

13. The same people who shoot selfies wherever they go...

and post pictures of their lunch.

[Bettie]

14. I sometimes send pictures of food I've made

to a food group I'm in....but only special things, usually baked stuff that turned out well, or, sometimes that went horribly wrong, but it's a group for that kind of thing.

[Harker]

15. There's a place for it, but not everyone needs to see my spaghetti.

[Orrex]

16. Might be useful at protests

Other than that, nightmare tech.

[moonbeam23]

17. i can't imagine anything

more f'd up than this

Who is going to buy into this pos? Has an entire generation just given up on using their own brains???

[FuzzyDicePHL]

19. I could see Amazon requiring employees to wear them.

Or other employers, for that matter.

[tinrobot]

18. What type of idiot would buy that?

Probably more idiots than I could imagine.

[Granny Blue]

20. Hard of Hearing here, and I just bought something similar

As I enter late stage deafness, I am finding speech very difficult to understand. I am missing words, and the brain guesses and fills in what it thinks it hears. Sometimes, the results are hilarious, but in other situations, it can be dangerous. Another factor is “listening fatigue”. The brain gets tired of working so hard to hear and understand speech and simply tunes out. This is a recipe for senility!

I grabbed this device because there is no AI, no app, and data transmission is completely wireless. It sits on the same wrist as my watch/activity tracker, its completely visible, I will explain it honestly when I need to turn it on. My doctors will be very comfortable knowing that I will clearly understand their instructions going forward. I can plug it in to my very secure computer and generate transcripts.

I think the problem is really the ubiqity of AI and the lack of any privacy regulations. I hope this will let me maintain my independence and make life less stressful. I just want to present another opinion on the usefulness of such a gadget!

I hope someday to carry a device like a star wars translator, which would instantaneously create transcripts with no AI or network on a screen. Dream on, right?

[intrepidity]

29. Curious about your device.

Can you please share more? TIA

[MuseRider]

33. Oh I could sure use that!

After my strokes I got better but only to a point. I cannot remember a blasted thing anyone tells me and as annoying as it is to them it drives me crazy and I do mess up things from time to time.

Of course the thought of anyone recording me would drive me up the wall and make me angry as can be. So there it is.......

[LudwigPastorius]

21. With technology like this, and Musk's Neurolink, we're on...

the cusp of going full Black Mirror.

[NBachers]

22. Certain words. phrases, and locations flagged for upload for violation review.

[HarryM]

23. Oesday ithay understandhay

iglatin pay et yay?

[Captain Zero]

32. Might need a cone of silence into which they may be excluded

Get Smart ! Sure Chief!

[hamsterjill]

25. Didn't they already make this movie?

The Circle? With Tom Hanks and Emma Watson.

SMH…

[nuxvomica]

26. "feels less like a tool and more like a trusted companion"

That is precisely what's wrong with it. It should feel like a tool, something the user has control over, and since it is not actually "a trusted companion" it seems really creepy that it should feel like one.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

28. Well stated and to the point. . . . . . nt

[Bernardo de La Paz]

27. Also would record other side of conversations. If someone is wearing one, demand they take it off and turn it off. . .nt

[in2herbs]

31. Anyone who buys one of these and then complains about DOGE's invasion of our privacy should

STFU.

[Maninacan]

34. Mute?

Mute? Really?