Meta acquires AI device startup Limitless

Limitless, the AI startup previously generally known as Rewind, has been acquired by Meta, the corporate introduced Friday on its web site. The corporate, which made an AI-powered pendant to report your conversations, says it’s going to not promote its {hardware} units and can preserve help for its present clients for a 12 months.

Prospects will not should pay a subscription charge and might be moved to the Limitless Plan in the intervening time. Different performance might be wound down, together with its non-pendant software program “Rewind,” which recorded customers’ desktop exercise and turned it right into a searchable report.

The startup, based by Brett Bejcek and Dan Siroker, the co-founder and former chief govt of Optimizely, pivoted to change into an AI machine maker final 12 months, providing its Limitless pendant for $99. The wearable may connect to your shirt like a wi-fi mic or be worn like a necklace. The machine is one in all a number of AI {hardware} units available on the market, together with one other (not very well-received) AI pendant generally known as Good friend.

In accordance with Limitless’ announcement, the corporate shares in Meta’s imaginative and prescient to “deliver private superintelligence to everybody,” which incorporates constructing AI-enabled wearables. (Meta is concentrated for now on AR/AI glasses, like its Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta, and its in-lens AI glasses, the Meta Ray-Ban Show.) Limitless mentioned it’s going to assist deliver that imaginative and prescient to life — which probably means supporting Meta’s present merchandise, not serving to Meta add an AI pendant to its lineup.

The corporate hinted that the elevated competitors out there made it troublesome for it to compete, particularly because the bigger gamers like OpenAI and Meta are creating their very own {hardware} units, too.

“Once we began Limitless 5 years in the past, the world was very completely different,” wrote Siroker within the announcement. “AI was a pipe dream to many. {Hardware} startups had been thought of unfundable, and a enterprise that did each AI and {hardware} would have been thought of ludicrous. However at present is completely different. The world has modified. We’re not engaged on a bizarre fringe thought. We’re constructing a future that now appears inevitable. We’re not alone.”

Meta shared the next assertion with Trendster through e-mail: “We’re excited that Limitless might be becoming a member of Meta to assist speed up our work to construct AI-enabled wearables.” The tech large didn’t share additional details about its plans, past noting that the crew will work within the wearables group of Actuality Labs.

Limitless will provide its clients a method to export their knowledge, the corporate mentioned, or customers can select to delete their knowledge from throughout the app.

The startup had raised greater than $33 million in funding from traders, together with a16z, First Spherical Capital, and NEA.

Up to date after publication with Meta’s remark.