It appears like Meta’s on-again, off-again relationship with its smartwatch mission is again on, with The Data reporting that the corporate is planning to launch its personal smartwatch, powered by synthetic intelligence, later this 12 months.
In response to The Data, Meta’s smartwatch, at present dubbed “Malibu 2,” will embrace well being monitoring and connection options, and can have Meta’s AI assistant inbuilt.
That largely aligns with earlier studies about Meta’s smartwatch mission, though Meta really deserted its smartwatch initiative again in 2022, after years of growth, as a part of broader cost-cutting measures. Meta additionally dumped its Portal sensible show system on the identical time, and since then, we haven’t heard something to recommend that the corporate was planning to alter its strategy on its watch system.
Till now, and possibly, the success of Meta’s AI sun shades has revived curiosity within the mission. Demand for the corporate’s sensible glasses has now exceeded manufacturing, with the broader hype round AI driving extra curiosity. That, presumably, is what’s impressed Meta to return to the drafting board with its smartwatch mission, which may even be capable of facilitate an always-on AI connection.
And given the curiosity in AI performance, it might be a wise wager.
Meta’s last-known smartwatch plans included two cameras constructed into the system. No less than a kind of cameras might be indifferent from the watchband so as to take photos and movies on the go. The brand new smartwatch might additionally embrace real-time translation, powered by Meta AI, whereas final 12 months, Meta acquired AI startup Limitless, whose major product was a pendant that’s in a position to file on a regular basis conversations and generate summaries.
That performance is also constructed into this new iteration of the smartwatch, whereas Meta additionally lately launched its Show sensible glasses, which embrace its neural wristband management system.
Meta’s wristband makes use of differential electromyography (i.e. muscle actions in your wrist) to manage system interplay, and that is also constructed into its watch mission so as facilitate extra take-up of Meta’s next-level system.
Perhaps that’s the larger plan, to get extra individuals accustomed to utilizing Meta’s evolving wearables, so as to speed up take-up of its next-level instruments.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has predicted that AI glasses will quickly supersede cell phones as our main digital connection system. Perhaps, that is one other step in that route.
