This is the LARK MIX button microphone launched by Mammoth in October last year, weighing 9 grams and with a sampling rate of 48kHz 24Bit.

This is LimitlessAI's recently launched wearable pendant AI device "Limitless", which is claimed to be the world's smallest AI wearable device.

Though both products are centered around "sound," these two devices with similar looks and sizes represent different fields and eras:

The former takes the size and weight of MOMA's traditional devices to a new level while taking into account the effect of picking up sound, making it a great companion for outdoor photography.

The former takes the size and weight of MOMA's traditional equipment to a new level, making it a quality partner for outdoor shooting.

The latter has a built-in LLM that records conversations between the owner and others around the clock and has a memory summarizing function that has an impact on our lives: unknown.

Less than five days after its release, LimitlessAI's founder announced that sales of this AI pendant exceeded 20,000 units, with most users coming from China and the United States.

AI Real-Time Typist

Limitless is a simple version of the Ai Pin, to put it mildly.

It doesn't have the Ai Pin's laser-ink screen, a lens for video and photos, or a replaceable battery clip - the only function left is to record audio.

But unlike traditional recording devices, it's got the big Limitless model built in, which gives it a lot more functionality: you can ask and talk to it to access online apps, such as those for Mac and Windows, which is the equivalent of integrating a whole bunch of apps into this little wearable in a "graphic-less" way.

As you can read in LimitlessAI founder Dan Siroker's official introduction, Limitless was founded on the idea of:

Enhance human intelligence through artificial intelligence, not replace it.

Limitless has real-time recording capabilities, so it's a voice memo of sorts, as a way to overcome the brain's limitations in memory and attention.

Limitless doesn't mean that human brain capacity has reached its limits, but rather that wearable AI can help us keep up to one backup of what we see and hear in our lives, just in case we need it.

For example, if you are in a meeting, but the next 4 work activities will always distract you, the existence of Limitless allows you to be 100% committed to the work of the moment, focusing on one thing at a time, and then those details and processes that are afraid to be forgotten, Limitless has already prepared, so you can think of it as your assistant.

What you say at that moment will be recorded by Limitless and summarized in real-time.

These are the three core functions of Limitless: "Transcript", "Notes" and "Summary".

These three functions correspond to the transcription of text, bolding of key points, and summary of key points.

Transcript transcription is no longer a new topic in the past year of the explosion of AI models and has even become a "mandatory course" for AI devices.

The speed and accuracy of Limitless transcription in the demo are not bad, and it can be said that it has reached the level of "AI average".

But it's the Notes and Summary summarization functions that test the AI's skills.

First, whether the summary points are accurate. Second, whether the elements of the whole text are complete. Third, whether the logic of the sub-points is fluent.

Dan Siroker demonstrated Limitless' ability to summarize at the end of his online video, which is nearly ten minutes long.

Limitless accurately breaks the video down into action items, key updates, priorities, and current challenges, all of which were the focus of the online launch.

Additionally, Limitless was able to isolate some of the details and highlights, such as the summary that explicitly mentions that the product is designed to augment human intelligence rather than replace it.

While it's not clear whether Limitless will make our lives easier in the future, it does feel like there will be fewer and fewer instances of not being able to understand a lesson in math class with the effort of picking up a pen.

However, it's still hard to discern Limitless's summarizing abilities from the quickly skimmed video, so it's a feature that will need to be focused on in subsequent reviews of the official release.

Intelligent Minimalism

The core features of Limitless are now available on the Limitless.ai website.

In addition to the high level of integration on the software side, Limitless' hardware form factor is also a highlight: it's extremely simple.

The U-shaped clip structure allows Limitless to be worn as a pendant around the neck or attached directly to clothing with a magnetic port.

Dan Siroker calls Limitless the world's most wearable AI.

For starters, at 31.9mm wide and 16mm thin, it's even smaller than the first generation of AirPods (44.3mm x 21.3mm x 53.5mm).

In such a compact size, the Limitless packs a 100h battery (battery capacity not mentioned), which reduces battery life anxiety considerably.

This is a far cry from the Ai Pin, which debuted two days ago. In the first batch of Ai Pin users' reviews, battery life was a pain point mentioned by many, and even with a battery pack that can be replaced, a total of less than 8 hours of light use is not enough to satisfy most people's needs.

Secondly, the Limitless, which has no screen, actually retains most of its electronic components, such as its support for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, so even without a cell phone, the Limitless can be used on its own.

In addition, Limitless retains two physical buttons, one for "conversation" and one for "recording".

The Record button is located on the side of the device, and when the recording function is turned on, a light will illuminate to remind you and others that the device is recording, similar to the trust indicator on the Ai Pin.

The dialog button is integrated into the front of the device and can be pressed to start an interrogation with Limitless.

A row of microphone pickups line the arc directly above the body, and Dan Siroker doesn't give any specifics about the microphones in the video, just a very scenic description of how the Limitless records:

Crystal clear audio quality even in crowded cafes.

Personalization" is a word that comes up again and again when introducing Limitless.

On the one hand, Limitless is personalized in its functionality. The device can suggest actions that are specific to you, based on what you are about to do, and based on your previous background and experiences.

Dan Siroker demonstrated this feature himself.

Limitless gave the following feedback based on the 'Record a Statement Video' prompt, combined with Dan Siroker's previous experiences and habits:

Have extended communication with the camera

Blink occasionally

Don't speak too fast

Keep it personal, but avoid bad puns and silly accents

On the other hand, Limitless' product colors are full of personalization:

Needless to say, but so familiar.

What's the point? A controversy for the industry

Privacy is one of the major challenges for AI devices coming to market.

They need more data to get smarter, but collecting it without cutoffs and constraints only makes it harder for these new things to come into our lives.

Limitless offers a triple layer of protection for this.

The first is the 'light on every recording' mentioned above.

The second is the 'consent option': no third party's speech will be recorded in any form without their permission.

Unless you get a clear answer such as "you can record", you will use this as a starting point to add recording window for the speaker.

The third layer is the 'privacy cloud'. Traditional apps tend to go to two extremes when it comes to the trade-off between privacy and functionality.

Traditional cloud services, such as Slack and G-Mail, can provide users with a lot of convenient cloud conveniences, receiving real-time suggestions, wireless storage space, and the best AI model updates, but open services ignore the privacy guarantees of users, software service providers, and public entities.

Limitless' first-ever Privacy Cloud balances the two by keeping all personal data viewed and revealed locally while maintaining a cloud-based service that allows private data to be viewed only after personal authentication.

Dan Siroker's thoughts on Limitless' privacy protection are clear, as are his plans for its future development.

In addition to these features that can already be experienced, Limitless will be adding a number of major updates soon.

Compared to Ai Pin, Limitless is very well positioned, which is why I'm more optimistic about the latter. It doesn't want to be everything, but rather, it has a strong focus on "sound" and is doing it in a deeper and more detailed way.

Moreover, Limitless does not exclude the existence of cell phones, and is even planning to provide native apps for iPhone and Android.

After this year's CES, AI gadgets began to emerge, and at the intersection where cell phones are still the absolute mainstay of people's lives, and the market is still exploring the best AI terminals other than cell phones, it's not a shame to embrace cell phones, or to recognize the status of its own "appendage".

Instead, overly radical reforms and 'indie-ism' only make a mockery of immature hardware, of which Ai Pin is a part.

Even when Dan Siroker announced the Limitless at $99 (roughly $716), he didn't forget to poke fun at the $699 Ai Pin.

Limitless has learned from these lessons and has been set up with very specific usage scenarios.

In the future, the HIPAA-compliant Limitless could become a doctor's right-hand man, focusing 100% on the consultation process, generating a summary of the patient's condition and recommendations for the medical record at the end of the conversation, and providing real-time access to the details of every consultation for every patient in the future through cloud-based data logging.

This is Limitless, an AI tool that focuses on sound. It's not complete or comprehensive, and it's even very likely to flop after its official launch in August, but in terms of features and price, Limitless is still a new product that's more likely to live up to psychological expectations.

Limitless, in addition to its own functional significance, also provides a certain reference for the current and future AI intelligent terminal:

Don't just come up and shout "replace cell phone", it's not practical and annoying, not to mention the probability that it won't be realized.

Why don't you learn from Limitless' small steps and run fast, step by step may be a more stable way for AI hardware to grow.