Former Apple engineers create AI button, but can’t explain why

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 seem to have leaned into this with an AI button that bears more than a passing resemblance to an iPod shuffle.

While the AI-enabled wearable addresses the horrendous privacy issue created by its former competitors, the duo has yet to provide a convincing explanation for why it’s not an app…

Previous AI wearables

Previous attempts at AI wearable devices did not go well. Marques Brownlee captured the essence of most of the reviews when he described the Humane AI pin as the worst product he had ever reviewed and the Rabbit R1 as “barely reviewable.”

My own opinion on dedicated AI hardware devices is that they are pointless when we already have one.

The iPod was one of the world’s greatest inventions… at the time. But as much as I still like that concept, it no longer makes sense to me to carry a dedicated piece of hardware just to play all the music I own, when instead I can use the device I already have in my pocket to play (almost) all the music in the world, whether I own it or not.

The same is true today with AI hardware. If smartphones didn’t exist, these devices would be enormously interesting and I would want one, despite their current limitations. But smartphones do They exist, and I don’t see a single reason why these devices aren’t simply apps.

Button

Wired reports that Chris Nolet and Ryan Burgoyne, two former Apple engineers who worked on Vision Pro, have now created their own AI hardware device simply called Button.

It’s a button, inside a case that looks (deliberately) like an iPod Shuffle. Inside is a generative AI chatbot. Press the button to allow the chatbot to listen, answer questions and accept demands. It will respond out loud or can connect to headphones or smart glasses via Bluetooth.

Pressing the button to activate it at least addresses the privacy nightmare created by always-on devices, but the pair still seem to have no answer to the question of why it’s not just an app.

“You can use the Internet on your PC, but it’s better over the phone,” says Nolet. “The new innovation is AI. You can use AI on your PC, you can use it on your phone, but our proposition is that it’s better on the Button.”

Because? He doesn’t say it.

Photo: Button