Two former Harvard students are launching Halo X, a pair of AI-powered smart glasses that listen to, record, and transcribe every conversation, displaying relevant information to the wearer in real time.
“Our goal is to make glasses that make you super intelligent the moment you put them on,” said AnhPhu Nguyen, co-founder of Halo. His co-founder, Caine Ardayfio, added that the glasses “give you infinite memory.”
The device can prompt answers during conversations, such as solving complex questions or providing definitions, effectively offering a real-world “Cluely” experience.
Halo has raised $1 million in funding led by Pillar VC, with support from Soma Capital, Village Global, and Morningside Venture. The glasses will cost $249 and are available for preorder. Ardayfio described them as “the first real step towards vibe thinking.”
Privacy concerns and controversies
The founders previously developed a facial-recognition app for Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses to demonstrate privacy risks, highlighting potential misuse of similar devices. Unlike Meta’s glasses, which have an indicator light when recording, Halo X does not provide an external warning. Ardayfio explained the glasses record audio, transcribe it, and delete the original files, aiming for discreet use.
Privacy advocates have warned about the broader implications. Eva Galperin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation said, “Normalizing the use of an always-on recording device, which in many circumstances would require consent, erodes the expectation of privacy in everyday conversations.”
US law in several states requires consent from all parties to record conversations. Ardayfio said Halo relies on users to comply with these regulations. Audio transcription is handled by Soniox, which claims not to store recordings. Nguyen added that the product will be end-to-end encrypted and aims to achieve SOC 2 compliance, although no timeline was provided.
How Halo X works
Currently, the glasses include a microphone and display but no camera. They rely on a connected smartphone for computing power, running Google’s Gemini and Perplexity AI engines. Gemini handles reasoning and calculations, while Perplexity searches the internet for information.
During demonstrations, the glasses could answer questions such as release dates for TV shows, highlighting real-time data retrieval. Nguyen emphasised that users still need their phones to power the AI and access prompts.
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