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.Riding the AI wave, other tech industry leaders Samsung and Apple have also entered the fray, with noise cancellation now almost a product standard.Startups, many of which are attending this week’s CES consumer electronics extravaganza in Las Vegas, are now trying to refine this technology and apply it to specific uses.Such is the case with OSO, which wants to take the concept of a professional assistant further.Its earbuds will record meetings and retrieve conversation elements on demand using everyday language.Viaim, a competitor, offers similar services and intends to focus on interoperability in a world controlled by major smartphone manufacturers that impose their own platforms.”If you use a different brand of cell phone, it doesn’t have any AI functions at all. That’s the opportunity for our earbuds,” explained Shawn Ma, CEO of Viaim, whose devices are compatible with all brands, including iPhones in China.Timekettle, meanwhile, is enjoying success in a completely different context, with “90 percent of its sales coming from schools,” according to Brian Shircliffe, head of US sales for the Chinese company.Many schools equip their non-English-speaking students with the devices so they can follow lessons without the need for a translator.- Reading minds -As for whether earbuds can replace smart glasses, connected speakers, or even smartphones as the dominant physical extension of generative AI, remains unanswered.For now, any AI functionality “is really dependent on the phone that it’s connected to,” said Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight.”Earbuds are certainly a more accessible entry for AI than smart glasses,” said Avi Greengart, president of Techsponential, a consultancy.”They’re a lot less expensive, they’re a product most smartphone users are buying anyway, and they don’t require a prescription.”However, “people generally don’t wear them all the time,” unlike glasses, “and they can only interact with voice, so you’ll need to be in an environment where talking is acceptable,” the analyst cautioned, adding that the lack of a camera limits the device’s potential.Some won’t be constrained by the shortcoming, notably Naqi Logix, whose Neural Earbuds are equipped with ultra-sensitive sensors that detect tiny movements.Thanks to these sensors, a quadriplegic user can control their wheelchair or surf the internet simply by looking at their computer screen.Operations manager Sandeep Arya sees great potential for these innovations, “because people would like to be able to interact with their environment in a more discreet, subtle way,” without having to call out to Siri on their smartphone, Alexa on their speaker, or Meta on their glasses.Arya envisions the technology going further, thanks to improved sensors capable of deciphering facial movements that a chatbot can use to find the right tone and words according to mood.Neurable, another startup whose MW75 Neuro LT headset measures brain activity, dreams of using its equipment to enable communication through thought, without gestures or words.”It’s remarkable,” says Ben Wood of these breakthroughs, “but it’s still a niche market for now.” Until further notice, “the hundreds of millions of headphones that have been sold will remain focused on listening.”

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang described robots as “AI immigrants” on Tuesday, arguing they could solve a global labor shortage that is hampering manufacturing.Addressing concerns about machines replacing human workers, the leader of the world’s dominant AI chip company took the opposite stance.”Having robots will create jobs,” Huang told 200 journalists and analysts during a 90-minute session at a Las Vegas hotel on the sidelines of the CES technology show.”We need more AI immigrants to help us on manufacturing floors and do work that maybe we’ve decided not to do anymore,” said Huang, whose off-the-cuff remarks have become a popular CES tradition.The gathering runs through Friday, with some 130,000 attendees.Like every year, robots are a major presence at CES, with companies hoping they will break into the mainstream as useful devices instead of novelties.A “robotics revolution” will compensate for labor losses from aging populations and demographic decline while boosting the economy, Huang argued.”When the economy grows, we hire more people,” he said, sporting his signature black leather jacket.Huang, who leads the world’s most valuable company at roughly $3.5 trillion, estimated the worker shortage reaches “tens of millions,” not thousands, due to demographic shifts.His comments align with other Silicon Valley leaders, particularly Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk, who frequently cite population decline and workforce aging as reasons to embrace automation.Nvidia is investing heavily in providing the foundational software that can make robots work across multiple industries, including manufacturing, retail, and healthcare.

Venezuela’s interim leader Delcy Rodriguez insisted Tuesday no foreign power was governing her country, even as US President Donald Trump announced Caracas will be swiftly turning over millions of barrels of oil to the United States.Rodriguez, who was vice president under toppled leader Nicolas Maduro, has given mixed signals about how much she is prepared to cooperate with Trump, at times sounding conciliatory, at others defiant.Speaking three days after US special forces snatched Maduro and his wife in a stunning raid in Caracas, Rodriguez said: “The government of Venezuela is in charge in our country, and no-one else.””There is no foreign agent governing Venezuela.”Trump insists Washington is now “in charge” of the Caribbean country but has said he is prepared to work with Rodriguez — provided she submits to his demand for access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.The US leader was startlingly direct about his intent regarding the South American country’s reserves, announcing on his Truth Social platform late Tuesday that Rodriguez “will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil” to the United States.”This oil will be sold at its market price, and that money will be controlled by me” as president, Trump said, adding that he has tasked Energy Secretary Chris Wright with “immediately” executing the plan.- No surrender -Rodriguez has offered an olive branch but also appeared anxious to keep on her side the hardliners who control the security forces and paramilitaries, which have patrolled the streets since Maduro’s capture.”We are a people that does not surrender, we are a people that does not give up,” she declared, paying tribute to the “martyrs” of the US attacks.She said the country is holding seven days of mourning for those killed.In its first confirmation of losses, Venezuela’s military on Tuesday published a list of 23 troops, including five generals, killed in the US strikes.Top ally Havana separately issued a list of 32 dead Cuban military personnel, many of whom were members of Maduro’s security detail.Venezuela has not yet confirmed the number of civilian casualties in the operation in which US forces grabbed Maduro and Flores and took them to the United States to face trial.Attorney General Tarek William Saab spoke Tuesday of “dozens” of civilian and military dead, without giving a breakdown.- ‘Trump, murderer’ -Thousands of supporters of the presidential couple, including powerful Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, marched through Caracas demanding their release.Fear of state repression has made it so the unpopular Maduro’s many detractors loathe to celebrate his downfall.Maduro and Flores appeared in court Monday in New York, where they pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges.Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has called on the United States to ensure they receive a fair trial.- Interim president’s challenges -Rodriguez has sought to project unity with Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, two hardliners seen as the main powerbrokers in the Maduro administration.Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, sidelined by Washington in the post-Maduro transition, warned in a Fox News interview that Rodriguez was not to be trusted.”Delcy Rodriguez as you know is one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narcotrafficking,” she said.”She’s the main ally and liaison with Russia, China, Iran, certainly not an individual that could be trusted by international investors.”In a sign that a repressive security apparatus remains in place, 16 journalists and media workers were detained in Venezuela on Monday, according to a journalists’ union.All were later released.Trump has warned that Rodriguez will pay “a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro” if she does not comply with Washington’s agenda.A retired general who held high-ranking positions in the military predicted that Rodriguez would throw open Venezuela to US oil and mining companies and perhaps resume diplomatic ties, broken off by Maduro in 2019.He also believed she would seek to appease criticism of Venezuela’s dire rights record by releasing political prisoners.Trump told Republican lawmakers Tuesday that Maduro was a “violent guy” who “killed millions of people” and claimed that Rodriguez’s administration was “closing up” a torture chamber in Caracas.The constitution says that after Maduro is formally declared absent — which could happen after six months — elections must then be held within 30 days.Machado told Fox News she was confident the opposition, widely seen as the real victors of 2024 elections, would win “over 90 percent of the votes.”