A month after launching their first product, Humane’s co-founders have taken their well-funded startup to market. While even the firm’s biggest cheerleaders didn’t expect Ai Pin to change the world in such a short period of time, few of his many opponents expected things to go so wrong, so quickly.
Humane’s biggest competitor, the Rabbit R1, didn’t fare much better. Shortly after its launch, the AI-powered generative pocket computer was savaged by critics. The most glaring criticism of the “half-baked” device was that it could be an app rather than $200 hardware.
The pre-launch excitement of both devices is proof positive that there is interest in a new form factor that uses LLMs (large language models) in a way that is really useful in our daily lives. Right now, though, it’s safe to assume that no one has taped the site yet.
Iyo represents a third form factor in the push to deliver standalone generative AI devices. Unlike Humane, who tried to introduce an entirely new form factor via a lapel pin, Iyo is building its technology into an already hugely successful category: Bluetooth headphones.
When the Iyo One launches this winter, the company will be able to build on several years of consumer education about integrating assistants like Alexa and Siri into headphones. The transition from this to more sophisticated LLM-based models is much shorter than something like the Ai Pin, requiring a fundamental rethinking of the way we interact with our devices.
Like Humane and Rabbit, Iyo’s founding predates the current AI hype cycle. The company traces its history all the way back to the earlier times of 2019.
“I saw all these people I knew in AI, three different research organizations at Google, all the outside people, OpenAI and others, all making these incredible advances with these language models, all independently,” founder and CEO Jason Rugolo told TechCrunch . “I realize it’s algebra and data, and nobody has an angle on any of those things. I saw that the core models would spread and become a commodity – very controversial in 2019.”
While Humane managed to generate quite a bit of interest based on its founders’ time at Apple, Iyo was actually formed at Google. The firm was incubated in Alphabet X’s “moonshot factory,” which spawned projects like Glass and Project Loon. Iyo was spun off in 2021. Unlike X graduates Waymo, Wing and Intrinsic, however, the company does not operate as a subsidiary. Instead, Alphabet served as Iyo’s first investor. As Rugolo was quick to point out, the search giant does not hold a seat on the company’s board.
Another important advantage is that, contrary to its name, the One will not be Iyo’s first product. Right now, you can go to the company’s site and buy a different but related audio device. The $1,650 Vad Pro is essentially an advanced in-ear reference studio monitor. The device has a similar rounded form factor to the One, along with head tracking, but Iyo’s first commercially available device is wired.
“If you’re building a digital audio workstation like Logic Pro,” says Rugolo, “it’s paired with some of the software we wrote that implements our virtualization technology.” This is designed to help engineers create spatial audio mixes.
Vad Pro talk about another important element of the Iyo One’s presentation: They are designed to be first and foremost a premium set of headphones. Unlike the Ai Pin and R1, which offer no value beyond their AI capabilities, the Iyo One can simply function as a good pair of headphones.
The headphones are significantly larger than standard Bluetooth headphones. That’s partly due to the inclusion of a significantly larger battery, which Rugolo says can last up to 16 hours on a charge when paired with a phone in Bluetooth mode. If you use the One in cellular mode without a headset connected, on the other hand, that number shrinks significantly to about an hour and a half.
Cost is also an issue. While the Iyo One will cost a fraction of the Vad Pro, it’s still cheap at $599 for the Wi-Fi model and $699 for the cellular version. The latter puts it at the same price as the Ai Pin and hundreds of dollars more than the R1. It’s well out of reach for the average user to buy hardware just to mess with it. Unlike Ai Pin, however, Iyo One will not require a monthly subscription fee.
“That kind of pattern is really something that comes from the venture,” Rugolo said. “They’re trying to push companies hard to get people locked up. I don’t like this model. This is not the best for customers.” However, the cellular version will require users to sign up for a plan with their carriers. It’s just standard practice.
As Denon’s eventual acquisition of Nura demonstrates, the Bluetooth headphone category is a tough one to take off, no matter how new the underlying technology may be. The companies compete with the biggest names in the industry on one end, including Apple, Samsung and Google. On the other hand, you have pairs, often designed by Chinese manufacturers, that can be had for as little as $10 new.
However, Rugolo thinks the headset will provide value from day one. Ai Pin and R1 struggle to say the same.
“I think the key is delivering value immediately, right out of the box, focusing on the features they’re going to ship with,” said the Iyo founder. “We believe this is a platform and we think there will be millions of what we call ‘Audio-First Apps’, these AU apps. But people don’t buy platforms. They buy products that do super useful things for them. So, just in terms of sound isolation, comfort, music quality, we think there’s a very big market for these devices.”
