10 years ago this idea failed, but now new times have come...
Artificial intelligence has long been a part of everyday online life, but now the technology is moving ever closer to the physical world. According to The Information, Apple is in the early stages of developing an AI-powered wearable device roughly the size of an AirTag. It is reportedly planned to include microphones, a speaker, and cameras, meaning the device will continuously collect sound and images around the user. Almost simultaneously, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, OpenAI confirmed plans to create its own AI gadget.
Over the past 10 years, the market has seen a variety of wearable technology formats: badges, pendants, rings, clips, glasses, and pins. Most of these remained experiments for enthusiasts and the subject of reviews, but never became part of everyday life. Now the question is much more pressing. Are people willing to wear AI devices not just for the sake of a cool video on social media, but on the subway, at work, in meetings, and at dinner with loved ones? And a second, more complex question: to what extent are people willing to tolerate the constant presence of a device that hears and sees everything that's going on around them?
Future gadgets are being designed, one way or another, to constantly collect information from their surroundings. Cameras and microphones capture faces, voices, street scenes, road signs, and city sounds. Based on this data, AI can suggest the name of the person you're talking to, help you monitor your diet, suggest conversational phrases, or formulate questions on a date. What previously existed only online, where algorithms facilitated messaging and communication, is gradually moving offline and beginning to impact face-to-face interactions.
The most sensitive issue here is privacy . In the early 2010s, Google Glass quickly became a symbol of total surveillance. People wearing the glasses were perceived as walking cameras. Social tensions grew so rapidly that owners of the devices began being kicked out of movie theaters, bars, and other public spaces.
A similar story later occurred with Humane's AI Pin . The device was conceived as a screenless assistant that would display information directly on the user's palm. The idea sounded impressive, but in reality, the product was unstable and frequently crashed. It was widely received negatively in the tech community. In early 2025, the company closed, selling most of its business to Hewlett-Packard for $116 million.
That same year, 2025, the startup Friend released an AI companion in the form of a pendant and invested over $1 million in an advertising campaign in the New York City subway. The posters quickly became targets for vandalism, with sardonic messages like "make real friends" written on them.
Despite these examples, large companies are starting to think about this again. The reason is simple: the market is potentially huge. In 2025, Amazon acquired Bee, a company developing a fitness tracker with AI features. In December, Meta acquired Limitless, a startup creating a pendant with conversational AI. More than 2 million pairs of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses have already been sold. This is small compared to the more than 3 billion iPhones Apple will have shipped by mid-2025, but the mere fact that these sales have occurred demonstrates that interest in such devices is gradually growing.
People's attitudes toward AI wearables remain ambivalent. On the one hand, algorithms have long been integrated into everyday life. On the other, they have barely touched live conversations and personal encounters. This raises the issue of consent. By wearing such a device, a person draws others into a data stream. Any phrase, awkward moment, or awkward joke can be recorded and later used to train future AI systems. This directly challenges conventional notions of personal boundaries.
There's also the issue of trust. A glitch in a smartphone app is easy to stop. A glitch in a wearable device, worn all day, could lead to a leak of personal information with far more serious consequences.
Much will depend on practical benefits. Smartphones didn't immediately become convenient, but they quickly became essential. Meta smart glasses are finding users because glasses themselves are a familiar accessory, and AI simply adds new features: navigation, translations, answering questions, and sending messages. For people with visual impairments, such systems can read signs and menus, describe their surroundings, and connect them to human assistants through services like Be My Eyes. For those with hearing impairments, they can display real-time subtitles of conversations.
Apple and OpenAI are in a favorable position. Apple has an ecosystem and a high level of user trust. A potential AI Pin will likely be linked not only to Siri, which is planned to be developed into a full-fledged AI assistant, but also to all of the company's services, making the device more useful in everyday life. OpenAI relies on ChatGPT's audience of over 800 million weekly users, providing a ready-made platform for launching the new format.
While trends show growing interest in AI-powered wearables, the path to mass market adoption rests not on technology but on the reactions of those around them. If such gadgets don't learn to integrate into social environments and respect personal boundaries, they will face the same fate as Google Glass or AI Pin.
Artificial intelligence has long been a part of everyday online life, but now the technology is moving ever closer to the physical world. According to The Information, Apple is in the early stages of developing an AI-powered wearable device roughly the size of an AirTag. It is reportedly planned to include microphones, a speaker, and cameras, meaning the device will continuously collect sound and images around the user. Almost simultaneously, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, OpenAI confirmed plans to create its own AI gadget.
Over the past 10 years, the market has seen a variety of wearable technology formats: badges, pendants, rings, clips, glasses, and pins. Most of these remained experiments for enthusiasts and the subject of reviews, but never became part of everyday life. Now the question is much more pressing. Are people willing to wear AI devices not just for the sake of a cool video on social media, but on the subway, at work, in meetings, and at dinner with loved ones? And a second, more complex question: to what extent are people willing to tolerate the constant presence of a device that hears and sees everything that's going on around them?
Future gadgets are being designed, one way or another, to constantly collect information from their surroundings. Cameras and microphones capture faces, voices, street scenes, road signs, and city sounds. Based on this data, AI can suggest the name of the person you're talking to, help you monitor your diet, suggest conversational phrases, or formulate questions on a date. What previously existed only online, where algorithms facilitated messaging and communication, is gradually moving offline and beginning to impact face-to-face interactions.
The most sensitive issue here is privacy . In the early 2010s, Google Glass quickly became a symbol of total surveillance. People wearing the glasses were perceived as walking cameras. Social tensions grew so rapidly that owners of the devices began being kicked out of movie theaters, bars, and other public spaces.
A similar story later occurred with Humane's AI Pin . The device was conceived as a screenless assistant that would display information directly on the user's palm. The idea sounded impressive, but in reality, the product was unstable and frequently crashed. It was widely received negatively in the tech community. In early 2025, the company closed, selling most of its business to Hewlett-Packard for $116 million.
That same year, 2025, the startup Friend released an AI companion in the form of a pendant and invested over $1 million in an advertising campaign in the New York City subway. The posters quickly became targets for vandalism, with sardonic messages like "make real friends" written on them.
Despite these examples, large companies are starting to think about this again. The reason is simple: the market is potentially huge. In 2025, Amazon acquired Bee, a company developing a fitness tracker with AI features. In December, Meta acquired Limitless, a startup creating a pendant with conversational AI. More than 2 million pairs of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses have already been sold. This is small compared to the more than 3 billion iPhones Apple will have shipped by mid-2025, but the mere fact that these sales have occurred demonstrates that interest in such devices is gradually growing.
People's attitudes toward AI wearables remain ambivalent. On the one hand, algorithms have long been integrated into everyday life. On the other, they have barely touched live conversations and personal encounters. This raises the issue of consent. By wearing such a device, a person draws others into a data stream. Any phrase, awkward moment, or awkward joke can be recorded and later used to train future AI systems. This directly challenges conventional notions of personal boundaries.
There's also the issue of trust. A glitch in a smartphone app is easy to stop. A glitch in a wearable device, worn all day, could lead to a leak of personal information with far more serious consequences.
Much will depend on practical benefits. Smartphones didn't immediately become convenient, but they quickly became essential. Meta smart glasses are finding users because glasses themselves are a familiar accessory, and AI simply adds new features: navigation, translations, answering questions, and sending messages. For people with visual impairments, such systems can read signs and menus, describe their surroundings, and connect them to human assistants through services like Be My Eyes. For those with hearing impairments, they can display real-time subtitles of conversations.
Apple and OpenAI are in a favorable position. Apple has an ecosystem and a high level of user trust. A potential AI Pin will likely be linked not only to Siri, which is planned to be developed into a full-fledged AI assistant, but also to all of the company's services, making the device more useful in everyday life. OpenAI relies on ChatGPT's audience of over 800 million weekly users, providing a ready-made platform for launching the new format.
While trends show growing interest in AI-powered wearables, the path to mass market adoption rests not on technology but on the reactions of those around them. If such gadgets don't learn to integrate into social environments and respect personal boundaries, they will face the same fate as Google Glass or AI Pin.
