When tech companies talk about AI personal assistants helping people in their daily lives, it’s not theoretical to me — it’s something I already make extensive use of. Anthropic’s Claude answers between five to 30 queries for me per day, and my life is meaningfully improved by it. And yet, I remain incredibly skeptical of AI-centric devices because most of them are slow, gimmicky, or unappealing, and the latest pendant, named Omi, from a start-up called “Based Hardware,” doesn’t seem to be much different.

It’s a small circular device that looks like a thick button-cell battery, and is a pretty simple device, consisting of an onboard mic array, chipset, and battery that can last roughly three days on a charge. However, rather than storing and transcribing all this audio, it listens for when it thinks you’re talking to it, processes that information on your phone, and then prompts you with a notification, providing its response. In short, it functions like “Alexa” but without having to say “Hey Alexa” keywords, and — in theory — this would allow for the real-time improvement of your calls and conversations. In a conversation with a friend, you could bring up Bitcoin but forget what the current price is, only for your phone to then ping you with the answer. Similarly, you could be on a work call, and Omi could provide on-the-fly information supplementing what you’re saying.

This is all in theory though, and AI tools are usually more promising in concept than application; and its $89 price — with no subscription — doesn’t alleviate those concerns. It’s all feasible, but I suspect it would spam your phone with notifications providing inaccurate, unnecessary information. It also has stupid gimmick features, such as being able to chat with synthetic agents based on Twitter accounts — such as an AI version of Elon Musk.

You can wear this as a necklace — which is how everyone who buys one should and would use it —or you could stick it to the side of your head with a piece of medical tape and use a vague, undefined “brain interface.” Theoretically, this would let the device instantly know when you’re talking to it and eventually respond directly to thoughts, rather than saying them aloud; but in theory, I could win the lottery tomorrow and I won’t, just as this company won’t be the one to make the future real. Neural interfaces are promising but difficult, but Meta has been working on these for far longer, with far more seriousness and money, so don’t expect “Based Hardware” to beat them to market.

AI pins are a cool idea, and eventually, one company will create an always-listening AI device that works as well as the pitches suggest. Will Omi be that? Perhaps, but I wouldn’t bet on it.