Harvard Dropouts To Launch 'Always On' AI Smart Glasses That Listen, Record Every Conversation
- Reference: 0178793608
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/08/20/2058229/harvard-dropouts-to-launch-always-on-ai-smart-glasses-that-listen-record-every-conversation
- Source link:
"The AI listens to every conversation you have and uses that knowledge to tell you what to say ... kinda like IRL [2]Cluely ," Ardayfio told TechCrunch. "If somebody says a complex word or asks you a question, like, 'What's 37 to the third power?' or something like that, then it'll pop up on the glasses." From the report:
> Ardayfio and Nguyen have raised $1 million to develop the glasses, led by Pillar VC, with support from Soma Capital, Village Global, and Morningside Venture. The glasses will be priced at $249 and will be available for preorder starting Wednesday. Ardayfio called the glasses "the first real step towards vibe thinking."
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> The two Ivy League dropouts, who have since moved into their own version of the Hacker Hostel in the San Francisco Bay Area, [3]recently caused a stir after developing a facial-recognition app for Meta's smart Ray-Ban glasses to prove that the tech could be used to dox people. As a potential early competitor to Meta's smart glasses, Ardayfio said Meta, given its history of security and privacy scandals, had to rein in its product in ways that Halo can ultimately capitalize on. [...]
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> For now, Halo X glasses only have a display and a microphone, but no camera, although the two are exploring the possibility of adding it to a future model. Users still need to have their smartphones handy to help power the glasses and get "real time info prompts and answers to questions," per Nguyen. The glasses, which are manufactured by another company that the startup didn't name, are tethered to an accompanying app on the owner's phone, where the glasses essentially outsource the computing since they don't have enough power to do it on the device itself. Under the hood, the smart glasses use Google's Gemini and Perplexity as its chatbot engine, according to the two co-founders. Gemini is better for math and reasoning, whereas they use Perplexity to scrape the internet, they said.
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/20/harvard-dropouts-to-launch-always-on-ai-smart-glasses-that-listen-and-record-every-conversation/
[2] https://cluely.com/
[3] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/10/02/1441238/metas-smart-glasses-repurposed-for-covert-facial-recognition
Different definition of intelligent (Score:4, Insightful)
"Our goal is to make glasses that make you super intelligent the moment you put them on"
I'm thinking my definition of intelligent and yours are different...
Re: (Score:2)
Yep. There's a slight chance they could make someone seem more intelligent, but more likely they'll look as stupid as a hallucinating AI. And they won't know the difference. It's got absolutely nothing to do with the wearer's intelligence (although that someone is willing to pay for these is an indicator).
Harvard dropout? (Score:2)
What is Bill Gates up to know?
Re: (Score:1)
Bill Gates nows more than you think.
Re: (Score:2)
What does he now?
Future headline: (Score:2)
"Smart Glasses Founders & Harvard Dropouts Sued for Being Privacy Rapists"
and do they sell the data to marketing partners? (Score:2)
and do they sell the data to marketing partners?
or is it local only?
Re: (Score:2)
With any company, you'll have to take them at their word, but they claim they don't share, sell, or train on your conversations. It looks like it isn't local, with them stating they use end-to-end encryption and cannot even see your data.
Can we start? (Score:4, Funny)
Can we start being the shit out of these assholes NOW, or do we need to wait for a product release?
Not even out & U already dumber (Score:2)
> "Our goal is to make glasses that make you super intelligent the moment you put them on"
Gag me now! I decided to not wait for Bottageddon to finish me off.
Re: (Score:2)
If you price it high enough, the customers you have left are obligated to feel super intelligent.
So did they feel really dumb at Harvard? (Score:2)
Really difficult for me to rationalize why else you would want to make yourself the puppet of an AI.
PRIVACY PLEASE (Score:1)
If I was friends with or even just talking to someone who had a recording capable camera on their head at all times then I would simply stop hanging out with that person. Although I will definitely watch all the 'worst first date ever' and 'cancel this person for saying X' videos that get posted online.
Re: (Score:2)
It's a microphone. And you talk to people who have recording capable microphones on them all the time.
Re: (Score:2)
For now, "For now, Halo X glasses only have a display and a microphone, but no camera, although the two are exploring the possibility of adding it to a future model." I suspect they did not have the money to add the camera into the design yet. More complex design. If they are successful, I think you can count on them adding a cam.
Re: (Score:2)
"I suspect they did not have the money to add the camera into the design yet. "
A real Sherlock Holmes you are.
AI glasses without a camera is like a sports car without an engine. Maybe they did lack the money, but so what? It's not a product.
"More complex design. If they are successful, I think you can count on them adding a cam."
If the queen had balls she'd be king.
Re: (Score:2)
Well the queen may get her balls if V1 is successful enough to get some VC money for V2.
Harvard Smarvard (Score:3)
> Harvard Dropouts To Launch 'Always On' AI Smart Glasses That Listen, Record Every Conversation
More proof that dropping out of Harvard doesn't guarantee business success.
Re: (Score:2)
Being a professor at Harvard is no guarantee you're not a [1]complete nutjob. [harvard.edu]
[1] https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/11/harvard-researchers-see-alien-potential-in-mysterious-object/
Comparatively speaking (Score:2)
> ... make you super intelligent ...
So they'll turn black the moment one looks at Fox News, NewsMax, ONN, a GOP White House employee, or a GOP cabinet member? That will make the wearer "super intelligent", at least, compared to a MAGA not wearing these classes.
poison the results (Score:2)
I'm wondering if I could prompt someone's glasses to draw ASCII penises on their screen.
I don't want to sound like a Luddite but the older I become, the less excited I get about tech. I feel it's moved beyond beneficial to humanity and now just about vanity. I still see some pretty cool devices but nothing that makes me think "I HAVE to get that."
Re: (Score:2)
I'm more inclined to wear a harness of infrared laser LEDs, which screw up most camera sensors, at least temporarily.
I wonder if there's some kind of ultrasonic/subsonic equivalent for microphones.
powered by what? (Score:2)
"Halo X, a $249 pair of AI-powered smart glasses ... users still need to have their smartphones handy to help power the glasses and get "real time info prompts and answers to questions," ..."
So is smartphone-powered and AI-powered the same thing? Sounds like these two Harvard dropouts were marketing majors.
I might buy them (Score:2)
I would buy them purely as an assistive technology for my hearing loss. I would love to see a live transcript of what is being said. Google's Live Transcribe works well but having to look down at your phone is unnatural and prevents eye contact.
I have no interest in recording anything or in being AI enhanced.
Re: (Score:2)
That seems like a great use case to me, and an admirable one. If only there were some profit from it, or some benefit for the ultra Rich??
Enshitification of the Future⦠(Score:1)
They are doing this because there is a market. As PT Barnum said, you can fool some of the people all the time.
infinite memory (Score:1)
The largest token limits in common use are a million. Put just an hour of conversation in context with relevant data and you'll hit that limit. And that doesn't' even count the problem of forgetting within the limit.
Glassholes? (Score:4, Insightful)
Did we learn nothing from the glasshole incident?
Harvard Dropouts? (Score:3)
I unfortunately only ever had the opportunity to drop out of community college, perhaps if I could have dropped out of Harvard instead...
Re: Harvard Dropouts? (Score:2)
This may be a joke but its absolutely correct - 90% of the value of Harvard and most ivy league institutions is in the exclusivity of admission (resume signals), and networking contacts.
Split the value of that however you like but if you drop out after sophomore year to launch a failed startup you're probably getting the most value and ahead of your peers in both costs and long term career opportunity.
I suspect this is a big reason ivy league will be naturally reluctant to drop legacy admissions - its not j
Re: (Score:1)
Or Recording laws.
Things are different now (Score:2)
For example, everyone records everything all the time and uploads it to social media if it will be viral. In other words, these idiots are late to the game.
Should have stayed in school, kids.
Re: (Score:2)
We did. They didn't.
Re: Glassholes? (Score:2)
They were about a decade early, it would seem.