AI Voice Recorder, PLAUD Note Voice Recorder w/Case, App Control, Transcribe & Summarize Empowered by ChatGPT, Support 59 Languages, 64GB Memory, Audio Recorder for Lectures, Meetings, Calls, Silver

Work well with English, Cantonese and Mandarin
I’ve just brought one and started using the PLAUD NOTE AI Voice Recorder, and it’s revolutionized my workflow. Ideal for meetings, interviews, and transcribing conversations, it integrates OpenAI’s Whisper STT model with ChatGPT-4 for impressive accuracy English, Cantonese and Mandarin without and error.Its dual-mode precision recording captures ambient and internal sounds crisply, perfect for any setting. Despite its power, the compact, stylish design includes 64GB storage, 30-hour battery life, and essentials like a case and magnetic charger.

AI for meetings is nice, but it isn’t the easiest to use.
It is very nice to be able to record a meeting or other conversations and summarize with a myriad of templates for output. There have been a few cases where I forgot to turn the device off and recorded for over five hours where I had to review the video and do custom cropping. I would think that this could be automatic features that would make this process a lot easier and also reduce the number of dead space that is involved. Currently any dead space utilizes AI minutes, but you have to purchase separately.

Best accessory I own.
Besides my phone, this is the most crucial device I own. Sure it doesn’t cover my bald spot, but it does cover my butt. Being able have any detail from a conversation is critical. The quality, performance, and size are perfect and easy to use. I have been surprised by the battery life. It uses almost no battery when it’s just sitting and it’s easy to see the battery life in the app. As far as sound quality, it does a good job of picking up voices but the AI sometimes gets confused with overlapping voices. It got better with the update but there is still work to be done.

This could be a really big deal
It seems like every new product is trying to jump on the AI bandwagon but with few exceptions is mostly performative. The other extreme comes from products that claim to be AI powered but aren’t really. This is the real deal and one of the best realized implementations of AI to date. The hardware is epic as well but the show really starts when it interfaces with the GPT-40 powered cloud platform.We’ll get to that in a moment but the hardware is sleek, light, looks great and is very functional. I’ve always liked the idea of voice recorders but the reality has always been disappointing. Many are poorly constructed with a slow, non-intuitive interface. If you somehow manage to record something you’ve got to do something with the audio files you’ve created. Maybe if you’re doing something like taking class notes, listening to them over again will do you some good. For most use cases, however, it’s a tedious and pointless exercise. I’ve never made it past this point but those I know who have usually hire someone to transcribe them–another expense and not exactly a seamless integration. There are plenty of smartphone based recording apps as well but none are really worth more than a quick voice clip.Plaud has completely figured out the voice recorder. By transferring all of the technological ‘heavy lifting’ to your smartphone and/or the cloud they were able to keep the form factor small and sleek and the interface amazingly simple to use. There’s a switch to go between voice recording and phone recording. There’s also a button that starts and stops recording. That’s it. The audio files get transferred to the Plaud smartphone app where they are saved until you do something with them.The smartest thing to do is get a Plaud subscription which will allow you to upload files to the cloud. There they are transcribed and turned into one of several usual formats. Want a mind map? You’ve got it. Meeting notes? Not a problem. A straight transcript? They’ve got you covered. I’m assuming that Plaud will be adding more transcription/processing modes but what they’ve got so far is pretty impressive. It is fast and seamless–I’ve ranted at the device for an hour and when I processed the file I get back a very clear and concise summary with a list of actionable tasks at the bottom.What was most impressive is how many ‘non-obvious’ uses my wife and I came up with for the Plaud ecosystem. Abstract discussions on travel plans turn into clear and organized notes with ‘next steps’. To do lists are given context and structure (important if you’re a non-linear thinker like me). It can even translate into one of 59 languages. Sure, you can get the device and *not* use the AI interface but that’s like getting a high end TV set and just watching the program you can bring in with a ‘rabbit ears’ antenna.Quick circle back to the hardware–the ability it has to focus on the right voice in a noisy environment is very impressive. I tested it in my car with ambient road noise, the air conditioner running and the radio on CNBC (which added another voice to the mix) and it didn’t miss anything I said, nor did it pick up any extraneous input. Additionally, the battery life is mind blowing. The product description claims 30 hours of recording and 60 days on standby. If anything, that’s a low end expectation. I was in Canada for a month recently and forgot to bring my charging cable. I decided to see how long it would last on one charge. I recorded between 15-30 minutes of audio a day and the battery didn’t die until the final week.Plaud has already refined their app several times during the past few months and I’m assuming that process will continue. There’s a few things that need refinement but the ‘broad strokes’ are already in place and they’re impressive. If Plaud can keep improving the hardware while constantly improving the app/cloud platform their device could become as ubiquitous as was the Blackberry ‘back in the day’. Very highly recommended!