Logitech Launches An “AI” Mouse That’s Just A 2022 Mouse With A Mappable Button
from the because-we-can dept
“AI,” or semi-cooked language learning models are very cool. There’s a world of possibility there in terms of creativity and productivity tools to scientific research.
But early adoption of AI has been more of a rushed mess driven by speculative VC bros who are more interested in making money off of hype (see: pointless AI badges), or cutting corners (see: journalism), or badly automating already broken systems (see: health insurance) or using it as a bludgeon against labor (also see: journalism and media), than any sort of serious beneficial application.
And a lot of these kinds of folks are absolutely obsessed with putting “AI” into products that don’t need it just to generate hype. Even if the actual use case makes no coherent sense.
We most recently saw this with the Human AI pin, which was hyped as some kind of game changing revelation pre-release, only for reviewers to realize it doesn’t really work, and doesn’t really provide much not already accomplished by the supercomputer sitting in everybody’s pocket. But even that’s not as bad as companies who claim they’re integrating AI — despite doing nothing of the sort.
Like Logitech, which recently released a new M750 wireless mouse it has branded as a “signature AI edition.” But as Ars Technica notes, all they did is rebrand a mouse released in 2022 while adding a customizable button:
“I was disappointed to learn that the most distinct feature of the Logitech Signature AI Edition M750 is a button located south of the scroll wheel. This button is preprogrammed to launch the ChatGPT prompt builder, which Logitech recently added to its peripherals configuration app Options+.
That’s pretty much it.”
Ars points to other, similarly pointless ventures, like earbuds with clunky ChatGPT gesture prompt integration or Microsoft’s CoPilot button; stuff that only kind of works and nobody actually asked for. It’s basically just an attempt to seem futuristic and cash in on the hype wave without bothering to see if the actually functionality works or works better than what already exists.
The AI hype cycle isn’t entirely unlike the 5G hype cycle, in that there certainly is interesting and beneficial technology under the hood, but the way it’s being presented or implemented by overzealous marketing types is so detached from reality as to not be entirely coherent.
That creates an association over time in the minds of consumers between the technology and empty bluster, undermining the tech itself and future, actually beneficial use cases.
When bankers and marketing departments took over Silicon Valley it resulted in the actual engineers (like Woz) getting shoved in the corner out of sight. We’re now seeing such a severe disconnect between hype and reality it’s resulting in a golden age of bullshit artists and actively harming everybody in the chain, including the marketing folks absolutely convinced they’re being exceptionally clever.
Filed Under: ai, artificial intelligence, hardware, language learning models, marketing, mouse
Companies: logitech
Comments on “Logitech Launches An “AI” Mouse That’s Just A 2022 Mouse With A Mappable Button”
Snake oil
I’ve pretty much convinced my parents (I think) that if anyone is trying to sell them anything on the merits of AI, NFT, blockchain, crytpo, or 5G, to walk away. If a product can’t stand on its own, none of those “features” are going to add enough value to be worth a premium.
It helped my case when a few years ago a salesperson at their cellular carrier tried to convince them they “were required” to upgrade to 5G phones. Mom said “I’m going to check with my son first.” I sent her a coverage map that showed 5G was not available in their service area. She turned into Karen and asked for the manager, and walked out with two brand-new 4G phones.
YAY AI has replaced 5G as the overused meaningless buzzword!
I saw, what I hoped was just a joke, a picture of a sign for “AI generated organic eggs”. Now I am not so sure it was a joke.
Re:
Whatever you do, do not ask them about why the eggs have an unsettling number of fingers.
(Defined here as > 0.)
With the proper initials, we can get funding for anything!
The Crypto Grifter and AI Grifter ven diagram is a circle.
Micro-switches?
Did Logitech ever fix their shitty micro-switches? I was buying their “Marble Mouse” trackballs for a while, but they’d always develop at least one bad switch—missed clicks or false releases—within a year or two. Whereas a Microsoft Intellimouse, of which I’ve dumpster-dived a bunch, lasts about 10 years; so I’ve just been soldering their switches into the Logitechs.
(Oddly, the Logitech products have 3-year warranties despite never lasting it that long. But claiming the warranties and dealing with shipping would presumably take longer than just fixing the things, and the replacements wouldn’t be any better.)
Re:
I’m glad I’m not the only one that’s never been impressed with a single Logitech mouse product I’ve ever used.
I’m super disappointed that MS is killing the Intellimouse brand. I love the arc mouse for travel, and just a basic corded one for th desktop.
Re: Re:
I didn’t say “never”. A micro-switch salvaged from a circa-1995 Logitech serial mouse remains in good working order. It was probably sometime in the new millenium when they went to crap.
Re: Re:
I wasn’t aware of that. Then again, who ever needs a new Intellimouse? If you can’t find them in dumpsters, you can probably find replacements in a thrift store before the old ones die; I see one or two a year. Every one I’ve acquired was in perfect working order—sometimes dirty, but the shells can be removed and cleaned easily enough. And the only failure I’ve seen was in a single switch, easily replaced.
(Unfortunately, the micro-switches used in the Intellimouse are extremely difficult to repair, whereas the Logitech switches can usually be dis-assembled, cleaned, lubed, and re-assembled once or twice before replacement. Logitech’s still don’t last half as long.)
Re:
unfortunately for those trackballs, logitech doesn’t seem to consider them to be a premium product, so they use crap parts.
buy some of their premium stuff and get outta the 50 dollar or below set of products they sell, and it turns into a whole different company 😛
Re: Re:
I also had one of their early laser mice, RX1000 I think. It was a gift, so I don’t know what it cost, but it seemed “premium” to me and had the exact same problem.
While your point is interesting, if I wanted mice rather than trackballs, I’ve got those Microsoft ones that work just fine (even after I cut the wires to that annoying back-facing LED). If I were going to give larger amounts of money to some company, I wouldn’t be inclined to trust a company like Logitech that’s enshittified their low-end products to save a dollar—unless maybe the specific model I want to buy is unique and there are confirmed reviews speaking to its durability.
The whole point of a brand is to know what you’re getting, right? The idiots in charge should realize their actions at the low end can tarnish an entire brand. Have they actually ever admitted to a problem or claimed to fix it? Some motherboard manufacturers, for example, still claim “all Japanese capacitors” after their products were hit by the “plague” in the early 2000s; whereas I don’t recall seeing any Logitech box reference the switches.
Omron produces that switch in Japan and china, and the Japanese manufactured version costs more. Logitech used the cheap one. The Japanese switch doesn’t wear out nearly as fast.
I blame the tech press
If the tech press didn’t give seemingly endless hype to any and every utterance of any manufacturer (or wannabe manufacturer) of every “new” tech, none of this would be an issue.
I’d argue that Logitech, Humane, and even Apple with their relatively half-baked Vision Pro aren’t really doing anything wrong here; they’re just throwing mediocre, alpha, over-priced products at the wall to see what sticks.
The tech press hype machine, otoh, can’t help themselves but gush about every possible product in a desperate attempt to bring in eyeballs, even when they know that a product is shit (Humane pin), or not ready (Vision Pro), or just a minor evolution (5G).
Bode is criticizing the wrong people here. Companies should be expected to hype their new products, because that’s what companies have literally always done. We should expect more of the press.
Re: The cossacks work for the czar
“Tech press” is a misnomer because very, very few tech journalists can gather news independently of the sources they cover. Most of the tech press exists as a service industry to further the tech hype cycle or the interests of its newsmakers.
Everybody wants to sell their own
EasyAI button, it seems.It’s hilarious that they’re trying to solving problems that nobody has. Even if you use ChatGPT a lot, why would you need a special mouse button to open it?
Five-year plan
What do tech and communism have in common? Both operate on five-year plans.
Tech is a hype cycle with a lifespan of about five years. AI is the tech at the center of the current hype cycle, picking up after cryptocurrency/NFTs. Before that, it was the gig economy/”Uber for [thing]”, and so on.
AI is the magic word of the moment to cadge money out of investors.