From music to mind reading: AI startups bet on earbuds

AI companies are on the hunt to design the ideal device to deliver AI’s superpowers, and some new enterprises are convinced that headphones or earbuds are the way.

Startups have for a while tried to beef up headphones beyond their basic functions, like listening to music and making phone calls.

Nearly a decade ago, tech startups Waverly Labs and Mymanu added real-time translation to that list, and Google quickly followed suit, creating a voice-activated AI assistant in 2020.