A pair of Harvard dropouts are making headlines with their bold new startup, Halo, which is building “always-on” AI smart glasses designed to listen, record, and transcribe every conversation in real time. The glasses, called Halo X, promise to give wearers instant knowledge at their fingertips by displaying relevant information right in front of their eyes.
Co-founders AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio believe their invention could change the way people interact with the world. “Our goal is to make glasses that make you super intelligent the moment you put them on,” Nguyen explained. Ardayfio took it a step further, describing the device as a way to give users “infinite memory.” With the glasses capturing every word spoken and transforming it into usable insights, the pair hopes to push wearable AI into an entirely new category.
How Halo X Works
The Halo X glasses are designed to discreetly capture conversations, run them through AI smart glasses transcription, and then provide the wearer with context or answers in real time. Imagine being asked a tricky math question like “What’s 37 to the third power?” and seeing the solution instantly pop up on your lenses. Or picture struggling to remember a name or a reference from a past conversation—the glasses would pull it up for you in seconds.
The product is launching with a $249 price tag and is now available for preorder. Backed by $1 million in seed funding, Halo is supported by investors such as Pillar VC, Soma Capital, Village Global, and Morningside Venture. For the founders, this is more than just a hardware launch—it’s what Ardayfio calls “the first real step towards vibe thinking,” a phrase meant to describe a world where technology anticipates needs and provides information without users having to ask.
A Startup with Controversial Roots
Nguyen and Ardayfio are no strangers to controversy. Before starting Halo, the duo drew criticism for creating I-XRAY, a demo project that added facial-recognition features to Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses. Their experiment highlighted how easily such technology could be misused—identifying strangers in seconds and even exposing personal information without consent. While the code for I-XRAY was never released, the demo raised serious concerns about privacy and surveillance.
That history follows them into their new venture. Unlike Meta’s smart glasses, which include a visible indicator light to signal when cameras or microphones are active, Halo X glasses do not warn bystanders that they are being recorded. Ardayfio defended the decision, saying the glasses are meant to look and feel like normal eyewear. According to him, conversations are recorded, transcribed, and then deleted immediately after.
Privacy Concerns at the Forefront
Not everyone is convinced. Privacy advocates argue that normalizing discreet, always-on recording could pose a serious threat to personal freedoms. Eva Galperin, Director of Cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), compared the device to a modern version of the spy pen. “Small and discreet recording devices are not new,” she explained. “But making it normal for people to wear one everywhere erodes the expectation of privacy in everyday conversations.”
Legal hurdles also loom large. In the U.S., several states have “two-party consent” laws that make it illegal to record a conversation without the explicit permission of everyone involved. Ardayfio acknowledged these laws but said the responsibility falls on users to comply. “We trust our users to get consent if they are in a two-party consent state,” he said.
Questions also remain about how securely the data will be handled. The founders say Halo relies on Soniox for audio transcription, which claims not to store recordings. Nguyen added that the final product will feature end-to-end encryption and aims for SOC 2 compliance, though no specific timeline was provided.
Technology Under the Hood
While the Halo X glasses do not yet have a built-in camera, the team has hinted at the possibility of adding one in future models. For now, the glasses include a display and microphone but rely on a companion smartphone app for processing power. The glasses essentially act as the eyes and ears, while the phone does the heavy lifting.
The AI backbone of Halo X uses a hybrid approach, tapping into both Google’s Gemini model for math and logical reasoning and AI smart glasses for real-time internet lookups. This means that whether you need quick calculations or up-to-date information on topics like Netflix release schedules, the glasses can deliver an answer instantly. In one demo, when asked about the next season of The Witcher, the glasses responded: “Season four will be released on Netflix in 2025, but there’s no exact date yet.”
Competing Against Meta’s Smart Glasses
The timing of Halo X’s launch also puts it directly in competition with Meta, which has been pushing its Ray-Ban smart glasses in partnership with EssilorLuxottica. But Nguyen believes Meta is constrained by its history of privacy scandals, which forces the company to tread carefully. “Meta doesn’t have a great reputation for caring about user privacy,” Nguyen said. “For them to release something that’s always there with you brings huge utility, but it’s a reputational risk they won’t take before a startup does it at scale first.”
In other words, Halo is betting that a smaller, more agile startup can move faster than tech giants while capturing consumer interest in “always-on” wearables.
The Bigger Picture: Future of Always-On AI Wearables
The idea of wearing AI-powered glasses that never miss a word sounds futuristic, but it also raises fundamental questions about how society will adapt. Supporters see it as the next logical step in personal computing—a tool that can boost human intelligence and memory on demand. Critics see it as the beginning of a world where every interaction is potentially recorded and analyzed.
Looking ahead, Halo’s future will depend on two factors: how it addresses privacy concerns and whether it can build trust with users. If it succeeds, the startup could pioneer a new wave of wearable devices that blur the line between memory, information access, and real-time assistance. If it stumbles, Halo could face legal challenges, public backlash, and the same reputational risks it hopes to avoid by moving faster than larger companies.
A Quick Look Back
- 2024: Nguyen and Ardayfio developed I-XRAY, a controversial demo that added facial recognition to Meta Ray-Ban glasses.
- 2025: Halo raised $1 million from top venture capital firms and launched the Halo X AI smart glasses for preorder at $249.
- Now: Halo X promises “infinite memory” with AI-powered transcription and real-time prompts, while sparking debates over privacy and consent.
Final Thoughts
Halo X is not just another piece of wearable tech—it’s a glimpse into a future where AI smart glasses seamlessly with everyday life. For some, that future feels empowering. For others, it feels invasive. What’s clear is that Nguyen and Ardayfio have struck a nerve, opening up a larger conversation about where innovation ends and where personal privacy begins.
Whether Halo X becomes the next big thing or a cautionary tale, it represents a bold experiment in redefining how we interact with information, memory, and each other.