Plaud's first AI earbuds have arrived - what they can

What happened

AI wearables company Plaud, known for its AI notetaking devices, has entered the earbuds game. Will it capture skeptics? The company's new Plaud One Explorer Edition, a pair of AI-enabled earbuds, is available for preorder today at $250. Plaud also offers the clip-on NotePin and NotePin S, released in January, as well as the Note and Note Pro (a card-style recorder).

The company does not use data for model training, though you can opt in, and it does not allow its AI lab partners to train on your data either. Plaud is a Chinese company, but reiterated during a briefing for Plaud One that it processes US-based user data on servers located in the US.

That said, several Redditors expressed concerns about the viability and details of that claim as long as two years ago, when Plaud was still new on the scene, and what appears to be a Plaud rep addressing those concerns left some questions unanswered. Then there's the transparency concern these devices present.

By being so discreet, they make it hard to tell if your friend or coworker is recording you, especially if you're in a state that doesn't require two-party consent. For some experts, including our own, AI earbuds have thus far felt like a bit of a stretch.

The idea often overpromises capabilities that simply relay AI features already available on a phone or other device into a wearer's ears, rather than offering new or missing functionality unique to the earbud form factor. Some would prefer more standard upgrades to fancier, AI-forward features.

"Our focus is more on the capture side," Plaud CEO Nathan Xu said during a briefing, when asked about what sets Plaud One apart. You can preorder Plaud One Explorer Edition now in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands. Plaud said. 0 upgrade, slated for later this year.

Why it matters

These devices are carryable or wearable in some form, but that the Plaud One Explorer Edition are earbuds is a new style for the company. In the release, Plaud argues that earbuds are an optimal interface for increasingly agentic AI systems to assist users. "In the agent era, just speak," the company wrote.

Users can wear the earbuds traditionally, but they also work from within their case, placed on a table during a meeting to capture audio, for example. They capture in-person conversations, calls, virtual meetings, or just the wearer brainstorming aloud to themself. As for who's listening, it's Plaud Agent, integrating with platforms like Google Calendar, Notion, and Slack to carry out actions you dictate to the earbuds.

The agent runs on "a combination of proprietary and third-party model technology," a Plaud representative told ZDNET via email. "Plaud Agent also produces finished work products, from emails to documents and presentations," Plaud said. " While that will ultimately be up to the user, Plaud emphasized the agentic capabilities of the intelligence behind the hardware.

The workflow it envisions lets you build rapport with the agent as it builds context from your interactions over time. " The earbuds also connect with Plaud Intelligence, a platform that lets users pick from a selection of frontier models. Plaud said it's also upgraded Intelligence with better memory and stronger context alongside the new earbuds.

That ability to use whichever LLM they prefer with the earbuds is what Plaud hopes will set it apart from Apple and Google's earbuds, which connect to each company's respective AI, as well as forthcoming and rumored hardware from AI-first companies like OpenAI. Rather than being bound to the provider's specific LLM, Plaud One aims to attract a variety of brand-agnostic wearable enthusiasts.

Plaud's website says its devices adhere to several global privacy standards, including GDPR and HIPAA. The company encrypts user data and stores audio recordings on devices themselves and in the Plaud App, but does upload recordings to the cloud when you use transcription and summarization features. Still, Plaud's policy indicates that process is encrypted as well.

What to watch

Still, Apple is anticipated to release earbuds outfitted with tiny cameras -- to better support visual context for Siri AI -- at its annual hardware event next month. Regardless, Plaud believes its earbuds' real edge is the clarity with which they can record audio -- making its competitors recording devices and regular earbuds, not necessarily other AI-enabled gear.