Amazon

A new generation of AI-powered wearables from Amazon, Apple and Meta that constantly listen and interpret speech is pushing the boundaries of privacy law, with legal experts warning that users could potentially face liability for recording private conversations without consent, even when no audio is stored. The devices, including Amazon's Bee line, Apple Watch Series 12 and Meta's smart glasses, are designed to transcribe, summarize and analyze a user's day, but critics say they enable covert surveillance of bystanders and test laws written long before continuous audio processing existed.

Amazon has launched two new wearable AI devices from its Bee subsidiary, acquired last year for $300 million, that listen to users' conversations to provide summaries, reminders, and personalised shopping recommendations. The devices, Bee Frontier ($74.99) and Bee Eclipse ($99.99), are designed to be worn or attached to a phone and integrate with Amazon's Alexa+ assistant and e-commerce platform.

Amazon has acquired DuckLabs, the Amsterdam-based company behind the open-source analytical database DuckDB. Co-founders Hannes Mühleisen and Mark Raasveldt will continue to lead the team and the project's technical direction as part of AWS. The company has assured the community that DuckDB and its related tools will remain free and open-source under the MIT licence, with the DuckDB Foundation retaining oversight.