Tony Fadell, the man known as the father of the iPod, says the first wave of AI gadgets has already failed.

Speaking at the inaugural MIT Future Fest, Fadell displayed photos of three discontinued products: the Rabbit R1, the Humane AI Pin and the Limitless pendant.

“These were kind of the ‘Gen 1’ AI products,” he said. “Because of my background, these companies called me and asked me to help them. I didn’t.”

The devices flopped because they solved no genuine problem, Fadell argued. They were “just interesting technology for geeks” that did not apply to people’s lives.

He pointed to a deeper mismatch: fewer than 0.01 per cent of people have ever employed a human assistant. “Most consumers don’t even know what an assistant is,” he said.

The Rabbit R1 sold briskly at first but was panned for sluggish performance. The Humane AI Pin faced criticism over overheating and poor battery life.

Fadell’s verdict: companies must first understand the pain they are solving — or the next wave of AI hardware will fail too.