Last month, Logitech made a new mouse available. A company rep reached out to tell Ars of Logitech’s “newest mobile mouse”. The gadget’s product website reads the same as of this writing.
I’ve had great experiences with Logitech mice, mainly wireless ones, one of which I’m using today. So I was interested to find out what tweaks Swiss might have made to improve its previous wireless mouse designs. A louder click? A new design to better fit my overworked right hand? Could there be multiple onboard profiles in a business-ready design?
I was disappointed to learn that a key north of the scroll wheel is the most significant addition to the Logitech Signature AI Edition M750. The ChatGPT quick launcher, which Logitech recently integrated into its peripherals configuration app Options+, is preprogrammed to trigger this button.
That’s pretty much it.
Beyond that, the M750 looks just like the Swiss Name M650, which came out in January 2022. Additionally, the new mouse’s forward button (on the left side of the mouse) is preprogrammed to launch Windows or macOS search, and the back button opens ChatGPT within Options+. As of this writing, the new mouse’s MSRP is $10 higher ($50) than the M650’s.
I asked Logitech about the M750 appearing to be the M650 but with an extra button, and a spokesperson responded by saying:
M750 is certainly not the same mouse as M650. After the user installs the Logi Options+ software, there is an additional option that has been preprogrammed to activate the Logi AI Prompt Builder. Without Options+, the button does DPI adjustment between 1,000 and 1,600 DPI.
A reprogrammable button north of a mouse’s scroll wheel, which can be set to launch an app or adjust DPI on-board, is a common feature, even among Logitech mice. Logitech’s reps further claimed to me that the two mice use different electrical components, which Logitech refers to as the mouse’s system. According to the spokesperson, Logitech can customize platforms for different models.
Logitech’s rep declined to comment on why the M650 didn’t have a button south of its scroll wheel. Price might be a factor, but Logitech also sells less expensive mice with this feature.
Still, the minimal differences between the two suggest that the M750 isn’t worth an entire product release. I suspect that if it weren’t for Logitech’s trendy new software feature, the M750 wouldn’t have been marketed as a new product.
The M750 even raises the question of how many input devices must be equipped with some sort of flashy, conceptual AI-related feature.
Logitech’s ChatGPT quick launcher
Logitech’s much bigger release last week wasn’t a peripheral but an addition to its Options+ app. You don’t need the “new” M750 mouse to use Logitech’s AI Prompt Builder; I was able to program my MX Master 3S to launch it. AI Prompt Builder is supported by a number of Logitech keyboards and mice.
When you press a button that launches the quick builder, an Options+ screen appears. From there, you can input prompts that Options+ will use to generate a ChatGPT-compatible prompt based on your needs:
After you make your selections, another window opens with ChatGPT’s response. Logitech stated that the quick builder requires a ChatGPT account, but I was able to use GPT-3.5 without one (the feature can also be used with GPT-4).
The typical Arsian probably doesn’t need help creating a ChatGPT prompt, and Logitech’s new feature doesn’t work with any other chatbots. The quick builder might be interesting to less technically savvy individuals who are interested in some handholding for creating ChatGPT prompts. However, I question whether those with a basic understanding of relational AI need immediate access to ChatGPT.
The point, though, is instant exposure to ChatGPT features, something that Logitech is arguing is beneficial for its niche users. Some Logitech customers, however, seem to disagree, especially with the AI Prompt Builder, indicating that Options+ has even more tools under the hood.
However, Logitech isn’t the only tech company interested in providing hardware-based AI access.
ChatGPT can be paired with your earbuds to communicate with it.
Similarly to Logitech, Nothing is trying to give its customers quick access to ChatGPT. In this case, access occurs by pinching the device. Nothing announced this month that it had “integrated Nothing earbuds and Nothing OS with ChatGPT to provide users with instant access to knowledge directly from the devices they use most, earbuds and smartphones.” The functionality requires the latest Nothing OS and a Nothing phone with ChatGPT installed for users. Nothing plans to add more phones through software updates, but ChatGPT gestures work with Nothing’s Phone (2) and Nothing Ear and Nothing Ear (a).
Nothing also said it would embed “system- level entry points” to ChatGPT, like screenshot sharing and “Nothing- styled widgets”, to Nothing smartphone OSes.
Nothing’s ChatGPT integration may be a bit less intrusive than Logitech’s since users who don’t have ChatGPT on their phones won’t be affected. But, again, one may wonder how many people asked for this feature and how reliably it will function.
Microsoft’s Copilot button
Microsoft introduced a new key to Windows keyboards earlier this year for the first time since 1994. Before the news dropped, your mind might’ve raced with the possibilities and potential usefulness of a new addition. The button ended up being a Copilot launcher button, which isn’t even creatively designed.
Copilot’s necessity for Windows PCs is questionable, especially given that it is still in beta and that the world is still defining the best use cases for generative AI.
Further, shoehorning a Copilot button to the right of the right-Alt button means that users can miss out on useful buttons, like Menu, right-Ctrl (which is used heavily by Korean users), or right-Windows.
Microsoft’s Copilot button will be a requirement for the “AI PC” certification that Microsoft and Intel are plotting. If a computer didn’t come with a button dedicated to launching Microsoft’s proprietary chatbot, could it still perform AI workloads? Yes, of course; a Copilot button has nothing to do with a computer’s AI-related technical capabilities.
At this stage, we don’t really know what the difference between an “AI PC” and a non-AI PC will be. It’s possible that the certification, which will also call for an integrated neural processing unit (NPU), will refer to systems that can run a version of Copilot locally. As of this writing, though, the value of a certified Windows AI PC is unclear, considering the limited ways that Windows uses local NPUs, even compared to rival operating systems.
The Copilot button will still be operational while this is resolved, appearing more as a marketing tactic than as a means of ensuring that serious AI users can benefit from PCs.
Stay skeptical
AI will likely continue to dominate marketing campaigns for tech products, especially those targeted at those who are eager to own the newest and greatest but have different understandings of what AI can do and its relevance for them.
It’s not just generative AI. For years, audio peripherals have relied on machine learning to claim noise-canceling abilities. There are times when AI can enhance a piece of technology. However, I anticipate that more devices that aren’t necessarily better at integrating AI will start to advertise questionable tech features over the coming months and years.
For instance, MSI announced this year a monitor with a built-in NPU and the ability to quickly show League of Legends players when an enemy from outside of their field of view is arriving. In the gaming industry, for example, MSI recently announced a monitor with a built-in NPU and the ability to show League of Legends players when an enemy from outside their field of view is arriving. It’s unclear where the monitor’s training data would be stored, but MSI announced to PCWorld that it would make an app that enables users to use any game to train the monitor. Some people may believe that this feature is cheating, especially since on-device AI processing and image generation prevent it from being detected by conventional anti-cheating methods.
Another example is AI Shark’s vague claims. This year, it announced technology that brands could license in order to make an “AI keyboard,” “AI mouse,” “AI game controller,” or “AI headphones”. The products claim to learn gaming patterns and adjust accordingly using some unnamed AI technology. Based on how the owner uses the peripherals, the AI keyboard and AI game controller can suggest key bindings (presumably through some software) for the keys.
I have hope that consumer interest and common sense will spur consumer skepticism in order to prevent some of the worst so-called AI gadgets from becoming popular or misleading people despite my pessimism about the endless stream of AI marketing hype, if not AI washing, likely to scurve over the next few years of tech announcements.
For instance, the Humane AI Pin has already lost popularity, especially in comparison to the Rabbit R1… if you’ve actually gotten behind the idea of carrying around a standalone AI assistant device.
