Artificial Intelligence comes to smart pens, includes handwriting-to-text and ChatGPT

On March 1st, engineer Zakwan Ahmad launched his concept for "The One Smart AI Pen" on Kickstarter, debuting a device that looks on a surface level like a standard ballpoint pen but actually packs a battery, microphone, and Bluetooth radio for integration with HearIt.AI mobile control and ChatGPT. Among the smart pen's many functionalities include audio recording for translation in 52+ languages, voice dictation, setting reminders, and ChatGPT-4.0-Mini conversing. A "Writing Mode" also exists to convert handwriting into digital text, which could be useful for those who want to increase their writing time away from screens.

After an hour of charging The One Smart AI Pen, it will be ready for use at up to 10 meters from a connected smartphone for up to 30 hours, thanks to steel and plastic construction and Bluetooth 5.2 support. A MicroSD card slot is also built into the middle of the device for the purpose of storing extended meeting and lecture recordings.

Judging by all these features, The One Smart AI Pen an ambitious little device— and fortunately, its AI functionality also seems quite optional if you'd prefer not to use it. The most interesting feature here (handwritten-to-digital writing) may not even rely on generative AI like ChatGPT at all, and having a microphone built-in for purposes like lecture recording is just plain useful.

All that said, one can't help but also be wary of the security implications of an AI-connected smart pen that learns your pen strokes and, if hijacked, could theoretically always be recording you. This also only becomes a concern if the One Smart AI Pen actually ships and achieves its Kickstarter funding goal of $10,000 — with the total at the time of writing just $2581 across 39 backers.

As always with crowdfunded products, we feel compelled to remind readers: If you fund a project on Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, or the like, be mindful that you are making an investment that may or may not result in a finished product shipped to you, not simply purchasing a completed product.

Early bird crowdfunding pricing for The One Smart AI Pen starts at $50 US, with the actual MSRP expected to be $65. At time of writing, this Early Bird tier is the most popular on the Kickstarter, backed by 31 people, with just 6 opting for the $95 for two Early Bird smart AI pens.

It's also worth pointing out that, for those looking for some of these smart pen features without the AI angle and crowdfunding concerns, Livescribe has been designing and selling various smart pens since 2008.