I tried an AI wristband that listens to you 24/7 – and makes IRL conversations searchable

Like most people, the minute I heard of an AI-powered wristband that listens to you all day and night, my immediate concern was privacy. However, as I went through the Bee Pioneer Band’s demo, those concerns faded, with the value becoming evident.

Bee Pioneer Band

The Bee AI wearable looks like an ordinary fitness tracker; however, it uses a dual microphone system to listen to all of your conversations and interactions. This information is used to get to know you better, transcribe and summarize your interactions, and more.

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The conversations and summaries are all accessible on the app in a clean, organized, and digestible manner. You can also ask the app questions regarding your conversations, much like you would after recording on Otter.ai. In my opinion, this is the most helpful use case for the band, as I often find myself wondering if I remembered something correctly or wanting to reference back to what someone said.

How it uses your conversations

The Bee Pioneer uses all of your conversations to better answer your questions, much like ChatGPT’s Memory feature. The major difference is that ChatGPT only has the context of your conversations in the chatbot, while the Bee Pioneer has context of everything in your day, allowing you to ask much deeper questions.

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For example, in the app, you can ask something about your personal life, such as, “How is my parenting approach?” or “What can I do to improve these behaviors?” Based on its transcriptions, it could give you feedback, referencing your actions. Beyond answering questions, it provides actionable insights such as suggested to-dos, daily summaries, and reflections.

Privacy and security

Of course, one big concern remains: privacy. There is a button on the wristband that you can click when you want it to be muted and not have it listen to you. The founders of the product, Maria de Lourdes Zollo and Ethan Sutin, assured me that privacy was a top priority. According to Sutin, no human can see the conversations, and the data will not be sold or used for training.

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Conversation data would only be shared with law enforcement if required by valid court orders. The company does not store the audio and shares that the data is protected with enterprise-grade encryption and undergoes regular third-party security audits.

Sutin said that, although there are versions with edge processing, right now, the battery consumption on the phone for running all the time is not feasible for everyday operation.

Beyond security, I still have some concerns, such as what makes the wearable equipped to analyze your behaviors and give feedback on your relationships. And, almost more importantly, what about the privacy implications for people who don’t know they are being recorded?

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I do see the advantage of having AI that is constantly aware of your actions, as it becomes more of a proactive assistant, always ready to help, rather than an assistant that is reactive and only steps in once you need help.

From other products I saw and demoed at CES, it seems AI hardware is ultimately moving in this direction. 

For example, the Natura Humana HumanPods are earbuds meant to be worn all day, placing “AI people” — LLM-based AI agents with unique personalities and voices — in your ear, accessible all the time with a simple double tap. However, we are still at the early stages of this type of technology, especially for widespread adoption.

Availability

If you want to try it out for yourself, the wearable costs $50 and is available for purchase now for iOS only, with an Android offering coming later this month before the official launch. The Bee Pioneer is modular and can also be worn as a pin; however, that attachment is yet to be sold on the site.