MTwo people, a full conversation, barely moving their mouths.
CThat's the pitch from a startup called Subvocal. Glasses that read silent speech.
MThey claim a very high words-per-minute figure. Faster than most people talk.
CShay Boloor posted it on X. There's also talk of Y Combinator money behind it.
MThe round? I couldn't verify that. The 200 number? Same.
CIt's early. But the idea is worth a real argument.
MFine. Tell me this isn't a privacy nightmare. Quiet conversations in a crowded room?
COr a lifeline for people who can't speak clearly. ALS, stroke. That's real.
MIf it works. A lab demo is not a product.
CEvery product starts as a lab demo. Radar started in a lab.
MRadar didn't promise full conversations while somebody's mouth twitches under a mask.
CThe claim is that the glasses watch tiny mouth movements. It's not reading your thoughts.
MFrom a pair of glasses? In real light? On a bus? Come on.
CI'm not saying ship it tomorrow. I'm saying the direction is smart.
MThe direction is also a surveillance tool. You could be recorded having a silent conversation.
CThe claim is that it only picks up deliberate mouth movements. You choose to use it.
MAnd people choose to use their phones. Doesn't mean they know they're being watched.
CSo because there are creepy uses, nobody builds it? That's the same bad argument against every camera.
MI'm not banning it. I'm saying the words-per-minute claim sounds inflated, and investors should ask harder questions.
CFair. The claim needs proof. But the accessibility use is real.
MReal use case, empty verification. That's my whole issue.
CAnd my issue is the opposite. Silent interfaces are coming. Try talking to your glasses on a packed flight.
MI'd rather type. We already have keyboards.
CYou type forty words a minute, maybe.
MAnd I can do it without anyone reading my lips from across the room.
CYou've clearly never seen me on a plane.
MMaybe not. But until an outside researcher verifies the speed claim, it stays on my hype list.
CIt stays on my watch list. The second it works, every voice assistant company buys it.
CA plumbing business owner in Sacramento became a Gen Z AI startup's first chief operating officer.
MWhere's this from?
COwen Gregorian posted on X about a Fortune profile of Marcelle Flowers.
MThat's not the usual startup pipeline.
CIt's smart. She knows operations, payroll, managing people. Those founders know code.
MBut is it a real COO role or a cute story about Gen Z adopting a boomer?
COh, come on. She ran a whole plumbing company. That's a real business.
MPlumbing is not software. The customers, the cash, the churn— different.
CLeadership is leadership. She knows when a budget is real and when it's a fantasy.
MI want to know what equity she got. If it's a tiny slice, it's mentorship with a title.
CSo if she didn't get rich from it, the experience was fake? That's a narrow view.
MWelcome to startup land. Titles cost nothing. Equity costs something.
CMaybe it's a title. But it's also two founders respecting experience instead of ignoring it.
MI'll give them that. Most venture-backed founders would have tried to automate her out of a job.
CExactly. They saw a person, not a legacy business.
MOn the autonomy side, Waymo posted on X about winter weather.
CThe gist: their cars pause in severe conditions, and the fleet acts as mobile weather stations.
MSo the self-driving future stops for a blizzard. That's not reassuring.
CActually, it is. A human should stop in a blizzard too. Knowing when to quit is a feature.
MBut if a snowstorm shuts down the fleet, what happened to the anywhere, anytime pitch?
CIt becomes almost anywhere, almost anytime. Better than a car sliding through an intersection.
MI'll take caution over chaos. But this isn't solved autonomy.
CCompletely agree. Frozen roads are hard for cameras, lidar, everything. Admitting it is honest.
MThe mobile weather station part is genuinely clever. A fleet reporting ice before the plows know.
CThat's the detail every autonomy company should brag about. Map the world by driving it.
MBut Waymo still has a long way outside the sunny, mapped cities.
CEvery rollout starts somewhere. They'll get to winter eventually.
MSo the future is late, but it's polite about it.