Former Plaud exec raises $26M for AI app that listens to you in the background
Former Plaud executive Peter Mo has launched Ambi, an AI-powered application designed to listen to users continuously and provide real-time assistance and insights. The startup has raised $26 million in funding led by Luminous Ventures and Huaqin, and is releasing apps for iPhones, Macs and Apple Watch. The service raises significant privacy concerns as it continuously records users' conversations and activities to gather context for personalised suggestions.
Ambi functions similarly to meeting note-takers but operates throughout the day, capturing conversations and user activity to provide proactive suggestions based on calendar, previous meetings, knowledge bases and web data. The company plans to expand with a desktop application that monitors work activities, and is developing custom hardware with a screen, speaker, camera and microphones. Mo argues that continuous access to context allows AI to function "anytime and anywhere", though critics worry the technology lacks sufficient indicators to alert bystanders when recording occurs, echoing concerns that prompted lawsuits against other meeting transcription services.
- Former Plaud executive raises $26 million for continuous AI listening app
- Ambi records conversations to provide real-time personalised assistance
- Privacy concerns mirror lawsuits against other recording services
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Ambi is a new artificial intelligence application that continuously listens to and monitors what users are doing on their iPhones, Macs and Apple Watches throughout the day. The startup was founded by Peter Mo, a former executive at Plaud, an AI company, and has raised $26 million in funding. The app is designed to provide real-time assistance and personalised suggestions based on users' activities and conversations.
The application works by constantly recording conversations and monitoring user activity, then using this information to offer help or insights. It functions like a personal assistant available all day, referencing users' calendars, previous conversations, stored information and web data to provide tailored suggestions. The company plans to expand with a desktop application and custom hardware featuring screens, speakers, cameras and microphones.
The technology has raised significant privacy concerns because it records users continuously and stores records of their conversations and activities. Critics worry about whether bystanders who are overheard are aware they are being recorded, and whether warning indicators are clear enough. Similar recording applications have faced legal challenges in the past, with lawsuits raising questions about consent and notification of those being recorded.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Supporters of such technology argue that contextual awareness enables genuinely valuable assistance unavailable through other means. They contend that users who opt-in with full understanding are exercising reasonable consumer choice; if the service's benefits justify the privacy trade-off for them, that decision should be respected. They point to the success of existing productivity tools and argue this represents a natural evolution of AI assistance into a more comprehensive personal aide that captures information humans naturally miss. For those who value productivity support and accept the data implications, restricting access to such tools seems unnecessarily paternalistic.
The case against
Critics emphasise that continuous recording fundamentally differs from discrete AI tools because it captures bystanders and family members who cannot consent to surveillance in their own presence. They argue that even transparent opt-in cannot resolve this core problem—one person's choice to be recorded shouldn't override others' right not to be monitored without their agreement. Beyond consent issues, they contend that normalising permanent environmental monitoring creates dangerous precedent and privacy erosion; the historical record shows data collected for benign reasons often gets repurposed in harmful ways. The absence of clear recording indicators exacerbates these concerns, as people cannot even know when they're being captured.