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Limitless' $99 AI wearable promises to remember your meetings and, well, everything else
Limitless, formerly Rewind, is putting its meeting transcription and work productivity AI into a wearable. If you're feeling discouraged by recent reviews of a particular AI wearable, the company aims to avoid the fate of Humane's Ai Pin by focusing on one thing at a time: first up, meetings.
Pendant, launched initially for effortless meeting prep, takes the same approach as Limitless' base tech, prioritizing discretion and seamless integration. Weatherproof and fitted with a magnetic clasp, it's designed to be worn on a lapel or collar, or as a necklace. Like other AI transcription services, it's intended to provide summaries, takeaways, and notes from conversations it records.
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Users simply need to click the device to join and record a meeting, and can tap it during a conversation to "bookmark" a moment. You can also tap and hold to ask Pendant a question, although it's unclear whether the device responds audibly or in-app.
Because Limitless AI ingests all the audio that Pendant records and makes sense of it, a wearer can retrieve specific information at any time. For example, say you forgot the deadline someone mentioned in a meeting: theoretically, you can ask Pendant for the answer, without even needing to reference the minutes.
According to Limitless' website, the Pendant "remembers what you say throughout the day," a feature the company hopes will eventually be used beyond work. Limitless wants us to think of Pendant's AI as a memory enhancer that captures insights from a wearer's life, including impromptu conversations, doctors' visits, and, yes, those moments when you talk to yourself.
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But that vision could raise privacy concerns. Limitless emphasizes how thoroughly user data is protected, including from third-party AI providers that support audio transcription – recordings are anonymized and deleted after 30 days. According to The Verge, Pendant also has a Consent Mode that can detect new voices and only records them when it hears that they've agreed to be recorded.
The Limitless Pendant features unlimited storage in the cloud, high-level data encryption, and 100 hours of battery life. It can work with conferencing tools like Zoom, Slack, Meet, and others, and is compatible with web, phones, Mac and PC.
The Pendant itself, which comes in eight colors and will start shipping in August, costs $99. You can then choose between free access, which limits certain AI features, or a plan for $19 a month, which gets you all the bells and whistles.