Wireless Earbuds Are Going Off the Rails Thanks to AI

There are a lot of wireless earbuds in the world. I’m not a genie or a demigod, so I can’t tell you exactly how many, but I’m just going to go with a lot. And given that volume, you’re probably assuming that there’s also a lot of redundancy, which is absolutely true… to an extent. Despite how many pairs of interchangeable midrange active noise cancellation (ANC) wireless earbuds there are out there, diametrically, things have been going completely and absolutely off the f**king rails. I’ll give you one guess why. Yup, that’s it… you know the answer.

If you guessed AI, congratulations, you’ve read at least one tech story this year. Probably a Gizmodo one.

AI is, like it has been in every other gadget on this increasingly toxic planet, finding its way into more and more pairs of your wireless earbuds, and the results have been… interesting. Most pairs of AI-centric wireless earbuds seem to have their sights trained on one thing in particular: transcription. Like this Oso AI Earbuds pair that I reviewed earlier this year, purveyors of AI wireless earbuds seem to be convinced that you want to walk around recording everything everyone says all the time. Hey, maybe you do! And if that’s the case, go ahead and shoot me your name and a face picture so I can make sure to watch what I say around you.

Most AI wireless earbuds of this ilk offer the ability to both record and transcribe in a companion app, so you’ll never forget anything ever again. On one hand, that ability could be useful for meetings or organization, or if you’re a journalist like me and need to capture what people say for work purposes. On the other hand, you could definitely just pick up your phone instead of buying an entirely new gadget.

To get around that fairly conversation-ending fact, there are some pushing the AI wireless earbuds envelope even further, purporting to offer LTE connectivity. This pair, called the Moboi TicNote Pods, from a Kickstarter, for example, claims to be the first AI notetaking wireless earbuds with a 4G mobile connection. Why would you want such a thing? Well, you probably don’t, but if you did, it’d be because you can theoretically use them for AI transcription and summaries without relying on a phone. You heard it here first: you can throw your phone straight in the trash.

Transcription buds might be the most popular iteration of AI wireless audio, but they’re not the only ones. Some startups are pushing things even further. Why stop at AI features? Why not go full-on AI gadget by shoving an “agentic computer†in your ear? That’s what this company, called iyO, is pitching, and the results look borderline ridiculous. iyO’s gadget, the iyO One, consists of not only an ear tip that is supposed to be custom-fitted to your ear, but also a tri-driver audio system, and then, the grand finale, an “audio computer disc,†which it claims has processing, memory, and microphones all built in.

When iyO says it wants you to put a computer in your ear, it seemingly means it, too. The iyO One apparently has a 4nm quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 chip, an option for LTE, and 32GB of LPDDR4 RAM. What are you supposed to do with all that? Kind of the same stuff you’re supposed to do with other AI wireless earbuds, including transcription, translation, and searching the web. As a nice treat, iyO also says its AI wireless earbuds (or I guess earbud singular) can give you super hearing thanks to a lot of beamforming mics and (duh) AI.

Live in high fidelity. #iyO #iyOOne #iyOAudio #LiveFully #HighFidelity #Explore #BePresent #SoundOfNature #Adventure pic.twitter.com/50lOZfmqVw

— iyo.ai (@iyo_audio) September 10, 2025

This is all to say that things have been escalating in the AI wireless earbuds world, which makes London-based audio/phone company Nothing and its incorporation of ChatGPT in the Ear-series buds from way back in 2024 feel quaint. Bigger companies like Google are also getting in on the action peripherally with features like hands-free Gemini Live, though they haven’t gone full-tilt into remarketing the Pixel Buds as “AI earbuds†quite yet.

It’s hard to be surprised about a trend like this since AI is (for better and often worse) all the rage these days, but it’s also unique in just how far the needle has been pushed. If I were a betting man, I’d bet you should buckle up, too, because as long as AI remains a buzzword, you’re going to keep seeing it shoehorned into your favorite gadgets. Call me old-fashioned, but I personally like my wireless earbuds to have hi-fi sound, great ANC, and solid battery life, but maybe I’m just out of touch. I guess you can just tap me on the shoulder when the AI earbud revolution rolls around; I won’t be able to hear your impassioned news with my antiquated, non-AI-centric earbuds shoved in my luddite ears.