Logitech's CEO says that AI-powered devices are a solution looking for a problem, despite being a strong proponent of AI and her firm pushing out exactly the kind of thing she's talking about.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Hanneke Faber, head of the Swiss mouse and webcam maker, dismissed efforts of other hardware companies to build AI into their gadgets.
"What's out there is a solution looking for a problem that doesn't exist," she reportedly told Bloomberg.
Admittedly, there have been some oddities such as the Humane AI Pin, a voice-powered chunk of plastic that users were supposed to pin to their clothing, and the Rabbit R1, a small square device equipped with a 2.88-inch touchscreen that used AI to interact with your smartphone so you wouldn't have to.
Logitech would never do that, of course, and so claims to be holding off on dabbling in AI-enabled widgets that allow users to interact with an AI assistant. Except, perhaps, for the Signature AI Edition Wireless mouse, which features a dedicated button that fires up a dialog to create ChatGPT prompts.
The recently launched MX Master 4 mouse also offers a shortcut button to Microsoft Copilot, for those who don't find having a dedicated Copilot key on their keyboard galling enough.
So let's not get the impression that Faber is some kind of AI skeptic like the now (in)famous Ed Zitron. Last month, she told Fortune that she'd be open to the idea of having an AI-powered board member, and that Logitech now uses AI agents in almost every meeting.
"If you don't have an AI agent in every meeting, you're missing out on some of the productivity," she claimed.
Perhaps Faber will change her mind on gadgets if and when OpenAI chief Sam Altman and former Apple designer Jony Ive come up with their prospective AI boondoggle. The pair were reported to be planning a startup to develop some kind of personal AI-powered gizmo way back in 2023, and recently said they are prototyping the device, expecting it to arrive in less than two years. ®
Source: The register