AI in your ears: At CES 2025, 28-year-old’s company to open new segway for AI hardware | Technology News

“From a user perspective, we wanted to avoid adding unnecessary complexity to the product, especially since smartphones already have all the necessary sensors, connections, and computational power to handle everything. Instead, we opted to create a hardware solution that is purely functional—streamlined, easy to understand, and genuinely useful,” explained Carlo Edoardo Ferraris, Founder and CEO of Natura Umana on what inspired his company to design HumanPods, open-ear wireless buds that, according to him, interact with AI—but not in the way you might expect.

HumanPods, set to debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas—the biggest tech event of the year—are a fundamentally different type of wireless earbuds. After all, it’s the software, NatureOS, that powers them, setting them apart from other TWS options. “The AI, [NatureOS], does not reside within the earbuds—it wouldn’t make sense from a hardware perspective. Instead, the AI operates in the cloud and can be accessed through an app on your phone (iOS and Android),” Ferraris explained during a video call with indianexpress.com from Chiasso, Switzerland, where he is based.


HumanPods HumanPods and the NatureOS app can be used independently or together for a full experience. (Image credit: Rolling Square)

Ferraris explained that he sees the earbuds as a bridge to Artificial Intelligence, with voice acting as the carrier, making this device the easiest and most frictionless way to interact with AI. “I feel there is currently no way to do that. If you want direct contact with AI, you always have to pick up your phone, unlock it, and open an app like ChatGPT or something similar, and only then can you start. But there’s no way to simply double-tap your earbuds and start speaking,” he said. “Sometimes, it’s the simple things—the simpler it is, the easier it will be for users to adapt to it.”

Brands like Nothing offer deep integration of ChatGPT with their buds, but you need to own a Nothing phone as well, which is a catch. However, Ferraris has taken a new approach, which is why he refers to HumanPods and NatureOS as a combination of hardware and software. “NatureOS is like a bridge. You can connect to ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or any LLM, but you can also connect to specialised AI people we have developed, which work in a much more complex way than a regular ChatGPT chat,” he said.

By “AI people,” Ferraris meant actual AI personalities, not how current AI chatbots like ChatGPT function. “These AI people have personalities that develop over time. They remember and record memories of your interactions, and they actually form opinions about you and the things you talk about. With time all of these things accumulate and influence their personality. So, the more you talk to them, the more your relationship grows—just from a personality perspective,” he explained. Additionally, Ferraris and his team have developed “skills,” which are essentially functions. They can search the internet, connect you to other AI people, analyse pictures, and link to external APIs, such as Google Calendar or Google Home.

At a foundational level, “AI people,” the core of NatureOS, is an AI agent system that takes actions on your behalf. In this system, the majority of tasks are automated by AI agents, which users interact with simply by speaking to them. “We developed the hardware [HumanPods] to be essentially present all the time in your ears. Users can put the HumanPods on and completely forget about them because they are designed to feel natural—they’re designed not to isolate. Whether users are wearing them or not, it doesn’t matter; they can still hear everything around them in the same way,” Ferraris explained.

Ferraris explained that each “AI person” has a specific purpose, personality, and skill set. There will be a general-purpose main assistant capable of taking action on your behalf and performing various tasks, but it won’t be specialised in any one area. For instance, if you say, ‘Hey Nature, I am feeling a little stressed about a meeting I have tomorrow,’ Nature won’t attempt to assist you directly, as most AI tools would. Instead, it will suggest, ‘Do you want me to connect you to your AI therapist?’ If you agree, Nature will assist by connecting you directly to your AI therapist.

He further explained that as users start interacting with AI people more, they will notice that the personality of your AI therapist is completely different from that of your AI fitness coach, for example. The AI fitness coach will have access to your Health App, Oura, Fitbit, or Whoop, and will be able to provide personalised fitness advice based on your data. Over time, the company plans to add skills and add new integrations.

HumanPods NatureOS is described as a hub that connects official LLMs and specialised AI people with different skills and personalities. (Image credit: Rolling Square)

HumanPods feature an open-ear design, making them well-suited for activities where you want to stay aware of your surroundings. They offer a more comfortable alternative to earbuds that rely on silicone tips inserted into the ear canal. The wireless buds use a patented design with a gravity hook that sits in the part of the ear called the concha. Ferraris explained that the idea behind HumanPods is to allow users to wear them all day without experiencing discomfort, a common issue with AirPods. The company also offers another pair of earbuds called Hyphen, which mimic the HumanPods’ open-ear design but are specifically designed for audio rather than AI interaction.

“The problem with current earbuds is that they are uncomfortable, isolate you, and have short battery life. We focused on solving those issues,” Ferraris said. However, during the development of HumanPods, Ferraris realised that the software required a higher-quality microphone to better understand the user, which, in turn, enhanced the AI’s performance. This made the team prioritise upgrading the microphone on HumanPods.

“A lot of work has gone on getting microphones right, the hardware, the placements and how they are isolated and also the algorithm that cancels the noise around you,” he added. Ferraris believes the hardware and software go hand in hand, and it’s a continuous process of iterating and improving aspects on both sides.

The team has also worked on improving the connection between the earbuds and the AI, specifically how the earbuds connect to the phone and to NatureOS. While HumanPods and NatureOS can be used separately, Ferraris insists that for the best experience, the two must be used together.

“The reason we chose the earbuds form factor over other designs is primarily because of the voice conversation experience, which we believe will become a major way people interact with technology. We need a device that can pick up the user’s voice and provide a response discreetly, without broadcasting it to everyone around,” Ferraris explained. “Humane AI Pin picks up your voice, but when it responds, everyone can hear it. Some conversations need to remain private.”

When Ferraris was 18 years old, he and his brother Lorenzo founded Rolling Square, the parent company of Natura Umana, which specialises in high-end tech accessories. However, since 2022, Ferraris has also been working on Natura Umana, a company he describes as focused on developing AI hardware and software. At Natura Umana, there are separate hardware and software teams, but he emphasises that both work closely together on projects.

Over the past year, tech companies—ranging from major corporations to small startups—have been attempting to integrate artificial intelligence into everyday products that have become ubiquitous, particularly in the hardware space. However, the mega-hyped AI devices—such as Rabbit R1, a fun pocket-sized AI companion that promised to handle everything from ordering an Uber to answering all your questions, and later the Humane AI Pin, a wearable computer—initially generated a lot of excitement and were seen as potential rivals to smartphones. Yet, they didn’t take off and ultimately failed.

HumanPods Ferraris describes the design of the HumanPods, highlighting their comfort and ability to be worn all day without discomfort, unlike other earbuds. (Image credit: Rolling Square)

Out of everything that has come out in the AI hardware space, Ferraris particularly liked what Meta has done with Ray-Ban smart glasses. However, he believes earbuds have a higher chance of making AI more popular than a glasses form factor. “While I think Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses are amazing for a lot of people, I don’t think they have the form factor to be widely used. I think wireless earbuds are much less intrusive than glasses.”

Ferraris didn’t disclose the price for HumanPods but mentioned that the app will have a subscription fee to unlock the full functionality. Once HumanPods and NatureOS are demoed at CES 2025 this month, the company will release the alpha version of the NatureOS app for community members. Then, in Q1, likely by the end of January or February, it will open pre-orders for HumanPods, with the earbuds available on the company’s website. Ferraris doesn’t expect to make a profit from HumanPods in the short run as has been the case with a new product.

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