Halo X smart glasses record everything, stirring privacy debate

Two former Harvard students are launching Halo X, a pair of AI-powered smart glasses designed to continuously record and transcribe conversations, offering real-time prompts to the wearer. Co-founders AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio describe the device as giving users “infinite memory” and the ability to instantly access information during interactions. The glasses, priced at $249, are available for preorder after raising $1 million from Pillar VC, Soma Capital, Village Global and Morningside Venture. The startup, based in the Bay Area, positions Halo X as a bolder alternative to Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, which limit recording features to protect privacy. Unlike Meta, Halo X has no external recording indicator. Ardayfio explained the design was intentional, aiming for discretion, with audio transcribed and then deleted. Still, privacy experts warn that normalizing covert recording devices threatens everyday expectations of confidentiality. Eva Galperin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation cautioned that such tools erode privacy in public and private spaces, and in many U.S. states, secretly recording conversations without consent is illegal. Ardayfio acknowledged the legal risks but said it was the responsibility of users to follow consent laws. He added that Halo relies on Soniox for transcription, which claims not to store recordings, and pledged end-to-end encryption and future SOC 2 compliance. However, no timeline or proof was provided. Critics remain wary given the founders’ past controversies, including I-XRAY, a facial-recognition demo for Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses that identified strangers without consent. Currently, Halo X lacks a camera but may add one later. The glasses require a smartphone to handle computing power through a companion app and use AI models like Google’s Gemini for reasoning and Perplexity for web-sourced answers. In demonstrations, the device provided quick responses to questions, though accuracy remains untested. Despite the excitement around always-on AI wearables, Halo X faces skepticism about security, legality, and ethics. With privacy concerns mounting and regulations unclear, the startup’s attempt to push AI-powered memory into everyday life is set to ignite debate far beyond Silicon Valley.