Oura Pulls IPO as AI Wearables Confront Privacy Backlash and Product Doubts

The company had been expected to debut this week, but delayed the offering despite what CNBC described as strong demand. Oura cited uncertainty in the IPO market, but some analysts were skeptical. "I really believe that there's something else that's causing them to pull out of the IPO, and I don't think it's the market," Anshel Sag, a principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, told CNBC. "I just can't nail what it is." He added, "Them jumping out of this IPO is kind of weird."

Meta made a splash last week with the unveiling of its Tamagotchi-like Muse Charm, a custom housing for its personal agent app that quickly topped Apple's iOS App Store free apps list, according to CNBC. Meta has continued to release new iterations of its Meta Ray-Ban AI glasses and offers an array of models at different price points. This week, OpenAI rolled out its own personal assistant called Dots. The ChatGPT maker is also working with iPhone designer Jony Ive on consumer devices, but its first offering does not appear to be a wearable, according to Bloomberg. Apple provided a look at its latest devices at the beginning of September, including AI features on the Watch Series 12 that will listen to conversations.

Privacy concerns are shadowing the category. Meta is navigating pushback to its smart spectacles, which have been dubbed "pervert glasses" on social media because of discreet cameras that can be used for harassment and other misbehavior. Bella Nowroozi, a 24-year-old master's student, told CNBC she was on a date at the mall when she noticed a blinking light on her companion's glasses. She recognized the frames as Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses she had seen on social media and told him to delete the recordings. "I was honestly pretty shocked," Nowroozi said. "I hadn't really experienced anything like that before. I was also scared to go on dates after that as openly as I did before."

CNBC reported that one social media user said a man took photos of her on a date without her permission, and another said a buyer from Facebook Marketplace took unauthorized videos of her and her children. Meta's own advertising campaign featuring Kylie Jenner filming her everyday life drew further criticism of the surveillance-like nature of the videos. Meta did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.

DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria said the growing resistance to camera-equipped glasses is a hard battle to overcome. "It's done for at this moment," Luria said. "We're going to have to revisit this 10 years from now." When Luria first gifted the spectacles to his twin teenage boys last year, they were "super excited." He says now they "wouldn't be caught dead in them." Last month, Meta unveiled a camera-free smart glasses option.

The wearables push is unfolding as the policy debate over AI safety risks intensifies in Washington and the blowback takes center stage ahead of the midterm elections in November. Far from the cute, fuzzy appearance of Meta's Muse character called Jolly, sprawling data centers have become the visual symbol of AI opposition in the U.S., according to CNBC. Many argue that wearables and other devices that are always listening or recording have become an extension of that perceived surveillance state. Flock Safety's license plate scanners are being vandalized and cities have ended contracts with the company over community outcry, CNBC reported. Smart glasses have been banned from gyms and other places because of privacy concerns. In February, the judge in the Meta social media addiction trial in Los Angeles threatened to hold anyone using AI smart glasses during CEO Mark Zuckerberg's testimony in contempt of court. Several people escorting Zuckerberg into the court were wearing the Meta Ray-Ban AI glasses.

"Their value add has to overcome the perception of AI being a technology that people are opposed," Sag said. "It needs to be more helpful and useful than people's apprehensions about it."

GPS delivered maps to a screen, the smartphone created a pocket-sized personal computer and AI promises to bring efficiency and automation to everyday life. New gadgets in the wearables market are vying to build a new category of devices, but Avi Greengart, founder and tech analyst at market research firm Techsponential, said the most futuristic gadgets today aren't necessarily what the consumer wants.