I said a couple of years ago that AI hardware devices were like trying to invent the iPod after the iPhone. Two former Apple engineers appear to have leaned into this with an AI button that bears more than a passing resemblance to an iPod shuffle.
While the AI wearable does address the horrendous privacy problem created by its erstwhile competitors, the duo still haven’t provided a convincing explanation as to why it isn’t an app …
Previous attempts at AI wearables didn’t go well. Marques Brownlee captured the essence of most reviews when he described the Humane AI pin as the worst product he’d ever reviewed and the Rabbit R1 as “barely reviewable.”
My own view of dedicated AI hardware devices is that they make no sense when we already carry one.
The iPod was one of the greatest inventions in the world … at the time. But much as I still love that concept, to me it no longer makes sense to carry a dedicated chunk of hardware just to play all the music I own, when I can instead use the device which is already in my pocket to play (almost) all the music in the world, whether or not I own it.
It’s the same thing with AI hardware today. If smartphones didn’t exist, these devices would be enormously exciting, and I’d want one, despite their current limitations. But smartphones do exist, and I can’t see a single reason why these devices aren’t simply apps.
Wired reports that Chris Nolet and Ryan Burgoyne, two former Apple engineers who worked on the Vision Pro, have now created their own AI hardware device simply called Button.
It is a button, inside a case that looks (deliberately) like an iPod Shuffle. Inside is a generative AI chatbot. Press the button to enable the chatbot to listen, answer questions, and take demands. It will answer out loud or can connect to earbuds or smart glasses via Bluetooth.
Pressing the button to activate it does at least address the privacy nightmare created by always-on devices, but the pair still seem to have no answer to the question why it isn’t simply an app.
“You can use the internet on your PC, but it’s better on the phone,” Nolet says. “The new innovation is AI. You can use AI on your PC, you can use it on your phone, but our pitch is that it’s better on the Button.”
Why? He doesn’t say.
Photo: Button
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