By Lisa Eadicicco, CNN
(CNN) — Picture this: On a normal workday, you and your coworkers walk around the office with tiny recorders clipped to your clothes. The glasses on your face nearly instantly identify what you see. Your bracelet records and analyzes all your conversations.
This is the future tech companies envision in the age of AI, whether consumers want it or not.
Major tech companies and startups are developing new types of wearable gadgets that can “see” or “hear.” Meta is selling millions of its EssilorLuxottica AI glasses with embedded cameras and microphones; Samsung will launch its own smart glasses later this year.
Wearing these items can give AI assistants instantaneous access to your life. Tech leaders hope that will help AI agents give advice tailored to users and, eventually, do things for you.
I personally tried to live in that future, integrating different wearables into my work and personal life. They were helpful in certain situations. But I often felt awkward asking friends and coworkers to record our interactions.
Devices that can watch you – and others – also put privacy at risk, experts say.
Unlike phones, they’re harder to spot, said Irina Raicu, director of the internet ethics program at Santa Clara University’s Marukkula Center for Applied Ethics.
“So the whole notion of consent is kind of disintegrating,” she said.
Trying them out
For years, tech companies tracked our lives via search trends, shopping habits, locations, and fitness routines online. Now, AI-enabled devices open up the possibility of using broader input from your real-world surroundings.
I wore three devices over the past several months – Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses, the Amazon Bee Pioneer wristband and Plaud’s Notepin S, a small recorder that you can clip onto your clothing. I took them to office, on work trips, even during vacation and at social gatherings. (The companies all provided them to CNN for testing.)
At times, I understood the appeal.
On a trip to Lisbon in April, I didn’t have to take out my phone to Google information about the Jerónimos Monastery, one of city’s most iconic landmarks. Meta’s smart glasses took a photo (with my consent), analyzed the image and came back with a response almost instantly.
The Amazon Bee Pioneer, a tiny recorder worn as a wristband that listens and offers advice, was helpful for networking events. It felt more natural to record conversations (with permission) without holding my phone, and the app suggested a contact for me to follow up with afterwards. The same goes for Plaud’s Notepin S, which I usually attached to the top of my shirt.
But often, these gadgets sat buried in my backpack or a desk drawer. That’s because using them socially felt strange.
As a journalist, I’m used to asking for permission to record an interview, but it felt odd during a game night with friends or even a one-on-one meeting with a coworker. Was the social unease worth taping these conversations?
Things also took a weird turn at times. During that board game night, I mentioned moving to a new apartment in the fall. The next time I opened the Bee app, it reminded me to book movers for October, which was useful.
Then Bee said it thought my words indicated the move was triggering anxiety about “stability” and my “sense of home.” It suggested I photograph “one beloved corner” of my current space to take with me.
It was a glimpse into what could happen when AI assistants try to make conclusions by observing you instead of what you’ve specifically told them. I didn’t feel anxious about the move and certainly didn’t mean to convey that to anyone – not my friends, not my husband and certainly not my AI bracelet.
Amazon said Bee is designed to surface insights and recommendations based on what it learns about a user over time, and that insights can be less precise early on when drawing from limited context. Users can also mark certain Bee insights as inaccurate to help it surface more relevant advice moving forward.
“We’re constantly refining how Grow works, and the experience will continue to improve,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement to CNN.
The push for AI gadgets
My experiences are likely just a slice of where things are headed.
“Some of the largest companies in the world right now” are developing gadgets like AI pendants, pins and jewelry, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon told CNN and a small group of journalists in June.
For Amazon, Bee is key to the future of its Alexa assistant. Most people would want a personal assistant that has context about their entire day, not just time spent in the house, Panos Panay, Amazon’s senior vice president of devices and Alexa, told CNN.
“The more they know, the better off they can complete tasks for you, and help you do what’s next. That’s quite powerful,” he said. “So it kind of leads to this: What are the future devices that connect you to your assistant?”
Nathan Xu, the CEO of Plaud, thinks his company’s recording devices may one day create a shorter work week. He thinks what’s captured on devices could help AI models better understand our jobs with less prompting, potentially helping people get work done faster.
OpenAI is working on a family of hardware gadgets, President Greg Brockman told reporters on Thursday. As AI agents advance, Brockman said the days of keyboards and mice will soon be behind us.
“Clicking things and typing things, it was a phase,” he said. “It was never what we wanted to be.”
‘Misused in dangerous ways’
The tech industry’s rosy outlook is at odds with how many people feel about AI – especially AI gadgets that can record you.
None has gotten more pushback than Meta’s AI glasses. Women have reported that men have used the eyewear to film and post videos of them on social media without their consent.
That inspired harsh words from pop singer Lorde.
“Can I just say for the record: F**k the glasses,” she recently said on stage.
Meta is now taking down those videos from Instagram. And Meta’s glasses – as well as the Bee Pioneer bracelet and Plaud Notepin S – have lights to indicate recording. Meta said the glasses’ camera won’t work if it’s covered up.
“We’ve built privacy into the camera for the glasses from the ground up – a capture LED will blink bright white when you take a photo or video you can save or share,” Meta spokesperson Dina El-Kassaby said in a statement to CNN. “This light has no off switch so both people wearing the glasses and those around them feel comfortable.”
But lights on some devices can be difficult to see since most people aren’t looking at your wrist or shirt when talking to you.
Wearable gadgets with microphones and cameras are risky because they can be discretely worn in areas that are meant to be private like a dressing room, said Calli Schroeder, senior counsel and director of the AI & Human Rights program at the Electronic Privacy and Information Center.
“There are some real concerns with how this could be misused in dangerous ways,” said Schroeder.
But tech giants seem sold on the idea of computers that can observe our surroundings. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggested on an earnings call last year that AI glasses could give people a “cognitive” edge.
“If you don’t have glasses that have AI or some way to interact with AI, I think you’re … at a pretty significant cognitive disadvantage compared to other people who you’re working with, or competing against,” he said.
The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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