After decades of feature-stuffing gadgets, we look for quiet tech

After wanting more and more and getting it, we now want to pivot towards some peace to detox, meditate, and try and pretend we never invented all that technology. And paid for it.

This era of letting everything possible take up our attention has pushed us into a state of digital fatigue, where our devices demand constant management, fragment our focus, and encourage mindless consumption. We've been tethered to a digital treadmill, bombarded by alerts and drowning in a sea of noise. But a counter-movement is gaining ground, perhaps offering some respite.

The philosophy of Quiet Tech is all about helping us live our lives more smoothly without demanding as much. The idea is to design things that fit into our lives naturally, rather than being disruptive. The idea is that the best tech is the tech that you don’t notice. And if that’s how technology should be, that’s how AI should be as well, helping to make it happen.

Let’s see how the world’s tech users, obsessed with taking their own photographs and candidly everyone else’s, like that idea. What’s the point if you can’t shoot videos and upload reel after reel to Instagram?

Well, Even Realities decided to take the risk of completely eliminating the camera and speakers, believing that much of the social friction these components lead to would be eliminated. Other AI glasses, of course, are solely based on their camera use.

The idea with the G2 is to boost privacy by removing the ability to record. This way, others won’t have to feel acutely uncomfortable in places where someone is wearing smart glasses and is likely to be recording video, only to do God-knows-what with it later. If you’re in a work meeting, just walking on the road, or any private setting, you’ll know how the presence of a camera introduces a sense of surveillance and unease.

The user communicates with the glasses using a companion smart ring. ‘Subtle’ gestures can convey basic commands for the AI to perform an action. In this way, the AI focuses on listening and comprehension. It enables the G2’s “Conversate" feature, an on-device AI that uses internal microphones to provide real-time, private cognitive assistance during live conversations.

It looks like the G2 glasses could make you seem a lot smarter than you are, leaving you at a distinct advantage over those who don’t have these glasses and aren’t constantly getting background information on a barely noticeable screen.

The G2 takes prescription lenses, and the glasses themselves don’t look very different from regular ones that people wear all the time.

The Quiet Tech approach taken by the Even Realities glasses and any others that follow suit does have some significant trade-offs. One already mentioned is that the wearer is covertly and unfairly being kept well-informed in a conversation, while those who don’t or can’t have such pricey tech are left relying on their own resources.

Also, a device like the G2 lacks the entertainment and content-creation features of its more conspicuous rivals. It may be carving out a vital and growing niche for users weary of digital overstimulation, but one wouldn’t expect it to have widespread appeal. But it does point to the need for some sanity in everyday technology usage.

The New Normal: The world is at an inflexion point. Artificial intelligence (AI) is set to be as massive a revolution as the Internet has been. The option to just stay away from AI will not be available to most people, as all the tech we use takes the AI route. This column series introduces AI to the non-techie in an easy and relatable way, aiming to demystify and help a user to actually put the technology to good use in everyday life.

Mala Bhargava is most often described as a ‘veteran’ writer who has contributed to several publications in India since 1995. Her domain is personal tech, and she writes to simplify and demystify technology for a non-techie audience.