Too Little, Too Early… The Wehead has a protracted solution to go earlier than it may be taken severely, on each {hardware} and software program fronts.

As we coursed the flooring of the Showstoppers occasion at CES, my eyes landed on one thing acquainted. I made eye contact (to the very best of my potential to make eye contact with a set of digital eyes) with the $5000 Wehead device, which I had simply reported on simply mere weeks in the past. It sat on a lone desk within the nook of the large ballroom the place the occasion was being held, with a number of folks mainly gathering the braveness to speak to it. Obviously, I needed to actually get a way of what it was like to speak with an AI, but additionally to see whether or not this $5000 machine was well worth the hype. Long story brief, the Wehead was a little bit of a large number from prime to backside. The {hardware} lacked the form of finesse you’d anticipate from a premium product, and the software program failed miserably at processing requests amidst the thrill of all of the folks round it.

Designer: Wehead

The Wehead was first envisioned as a one-of-a-kind teleconferencing machine that might let you converse to folks by way of video-chatting apps, however as an alternative of looking at a display, have you ever stare at a head that moved and responded to the actions of the particular person on the opposite finish of the decision. Somewhere down the road, the corporate made its transition to turning it right into a ChatGPT-esque assistant that may use AI to reply queries and increase life. The distinction between the Wehead and one thing like ChatGPT, Siri, or Google Assistant? The incontrovertible fact that Wehead really had a face, which, at the very least in concept, would add a extra immersive, plausible side to your entire expertise.

The drawback, nonetheless, lay in two broad domains – firstly, the Wehead was an answer searching for an issue. The lack of a facial part to AI could also be an issue, nevertheless it isn’t an issue that calls for a $5000 multi-screen bionic robotic. Secondly, even when that have been true, the Wehead itself was a slightly shoddily assembled machine, utilizing 4 cell phones, a shotgun mic, and a speaker to present ChatGPT an anthropomorphized contact.

For starters, only a take a look at the Wehead revealed the truth that its 4 screens have been really smartphones assembled collectively into one giant Macgyvered answer. The display component with the Wehead’s eyes really had a visual front-facing digicam cutout. Above it sat an off-brand shotgun microphone that captured vocal enter, and under, a small speaker the place you’d anticipate the Wehead’s throat to be. The 4 screens displayed components of the Wehead’s face, which emoted and responded to the Wehead speaking, listening, and interacting.

However, though the {hardware} appeared to be put collectively by a bunch of engineering college students, the Wehead didn’t ship. Its face was perpetually pixelated, which impacted the Wehead’s already dwindling realism. There was a extreme mismatch between the audio and the face’s actions, including additional issues to the combination… and eventually, the Wehead simply couldn’t appear to know something anybody mentioned. Sure, the occasion was crowded, leading to a number of background noise, however the Wehead nonetheless managed to fail on the fundamental questions it grasped. When Wehead received caught in considered one of its “I’m sorry, I don’t understand” suggestions loops, somebody from the corporate got here by to get it to cease responding, nevertheless it took them 3 tries to get Wehead to cease. Rather a lot might be attributed to the final occasion’s background chatter, however that virtually set the AI head up for failure, exhibiting its clear lack of with the ability to isolate audio earlier than processing it.

Here’s the factor although… I do suppose the Wehead holds nice potential. It simply wants a LOT of labor earlier than it will probably justify that price ticket. For starters, possibly ditch the smartphone shows for one thing extra distinctive like a curved OLED… and conceal the microphone and speaker, so it isn’t that apparent that this was put collectively utilizing {hardware} purchased at Best Buy. A speaking head working ChatGPT sounds spectacular, however the phantasm positive falls aside when it seems to be like a school mission, and when the Wehead itself can barely decide up something you say to it.