Amazon has reached a deal to acquire Bee, a San Francisco–based AI wearables startup known for its $49.99 “Bee” bracelet that continuously records and transcribes conversations to generate summaries, reminders, and to‑do lists.
The acquisition, though not yet closed and undisclosed in terms, sees Amazon commit to enhancing privacy controls—allowing users to mute recording—and signals the company’s return to personal wearable devices since discontinuing Halo in 2023.
Bee co‑founder Maria de Lourdes Zollo emphasized the move will help “bring truly personal, agentic AI to even more customers,” aligning with Amazon’s expansion of Alexa+ and its bets on generative AI across devices.
Amazon is reportedly ready to acquire Bee, a new wearable‑AI company whose flagship product is a slim bracelet resembling a Fitbit. Instead of tracking steps, however, Bee’s device listens, transcribing all spoken conversations to create a searchable personal log, actionable reminders, and conversational summaries via its mobile app.
The move places Amazon back in the wearables arena – beyond smart speakers and displays – after withdrawing from its Halo ring and health‑tracking line in 2023. With continuous audio capture at its core, Bee represents both a technological breakthrough and a potential lightning rod for privacy concerns.
“We imagined a world where AI is truly personal, where your life is understood and enhanced by technology that learns with you,” Bee co-founder Maria de Lourdes Zollo wrote in a social media post.
Always-listening assistant
Bee’s bracelet does three key things:
Record & transcribe every spoken word throughout your day, then purge audio files, retaining only text transcripts.
Summarize & reminder – Daily snapshots of conversations, locations, and action items (“call the plumber”) are automatically generated.
Personal assistant chat – Users can query the app with questions like “What did Paul ask me yesterday?”— with responses drawn from its recorded corpus.
Powered by a suite of models, including OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and proprietary LLMs, the device performs most of its heavy lifting in the cloud, with battery life preserved through a simple hardware design featuring a mute button and LED indicator.
Privacy concerns
Bee’s approach—continuous audio capture—has drawn both intrigue and alarm:
Privacy advocates warn about recording laws, noting Bee’s ability to listen even when users suspect it’s off. For instance, the LED indicator only glows red when muted—not when recording, raising transparency issues.
Users and journalists have reported misfires: confusing background media for real speech or generating bizarre “memories” about non-existent conversations.
Legal experts caution about compliance in states requiring all-party consent to recording. Bee offers data deletion and encryption, pledging not to train models or sell data.
The company notes that the device has a mute button so that the user can turn the microphone on and off. Amazon says Bee will integrate with its privacy-first ethos—offering enhanced mute controls and user transparency when the acquisition closes.