By Roman Aglaganov
AI note-takers record meetings and send you a summary afterwards. Ambi wants to do the work during the meeting, and, if you switch it on, to keep listening for the rest of the day. On 12 October the company said it has raised $26 million and released apps for iPhone, Mac and Apple Watch.
What it does
In meetings: like other note-takers it records and summarises, but its agent also suggests ideas and surfaces relevant information while you talk, drawing on your calendar, past meetings, your knowledge base and the web.
All day, if you choose: users can let the apps capture context outside meetings too. This “ambient capture” is off by default and can be switched off at any time.
Across devices: you can start a task on one device and continue it on another. A desktop app that watches your work is coming, and so is Ambi’s own hardware, with a screen, speaker, camera and microphones.
The company says it does not store recordings and encrypts its data, though it did not say what kind of encryption. The round was led by Luminous Ventures and the device maker Huaqin. Ambi has over 50 staff in San Francisco, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, and is led by Peter Mo, formerly of the AI recorder company Plaud.
The privacy problem
An app that listens all day also hears everyone around you. Ambi does not solve that, and Mo was frank about it. “We have to inform our users that they have to tell others about ambient capture,” he told TechCrunch, adding that the industry has not solved disclosure. Some note-taking companies have already been sued for recording people without consent.
Before you try it
Recording laws vary: in many places, everyone in a conversation must agree to be recorded. If you use an always-on assistant, tell the people you are with, leave ambient capture off by default, and never use it where others expect privacy. A helpful assistant is not worth a colleague’s trust.
