Nothing, for better or worse, is always looking towards new horizons, and according to the company’s CEO, Carl Pei, AI gadgets are cresting in that not-so-far-out landscape.

In a lengthy post on X, Pei confirmed that Nothing is working on some kind of AI-centric hardware and then said hardware could be released as soon as next month. That confirmation was followed up by something that’s arguably more tantalizing—a small teaser of what Nothing’s mysterious AI gadget will look like.

It’s not much to go on (barely anything, to be honest), but it does show some hints at a possible feature set. One of the biggest hints is the inclusion of what looks to be a recording button, which implies that its device will, well… record. Based on those two major pieces of the puzzle—it has AI, and it can record—it’s easy to start making some comparisons.

There are now a surprising number of AI gadgets that are really just Bluetooth mics that allow you to talk to AI. Plaud’s AI gadgets are arguably the biggest and most recognizable, focusing on straightforward functions like transcription, but more recently, these gadgets are adding agentic abilities—having AI listen to your voice and actually do stuff you ask it to, like create a document or draft an email, etc.

Those can be useful at times but also a little deflating. In many of ways, the additional hardware feels a bit unnecessary. There are plenty of gadgets out there that already have microphones, like wireless earbuds and this nifty little gadget called a smartphone—you may have heard of it.

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