andrewdug

We are announcing the development of our LLM-powered smart watch, called Rist. We're developing an open, cloud-based LLM operating system that makes it easy for users to connect their own LLM workflow endpoints, enabling custom tool usage and assistant modifications. Users can even fully replace the provided cloud OS with their own custom-built assistant or OS if they’d like.

It is platform agnostic, meaning no matter where you build your LLM workflow or agent, or which models it uses, you can easily connect it to the watch by providing an endpoint to your workflow, making sharing workflows among users easy and seamless.

As a fully standalone device, Rist features LTE connectivity and manages all standard smartphone functionality through voice and text input. Phone calls, navigation, media streaming (currently audio only), email, etc. are all handled by specialized LLMs. If any workflow doesn't meet your needs, alternative options will likely be available from other developers, or you can integrate your own custom solution.

It is our goal for the Rist to be a highly productive, less distracting alternative to smart phones for on-the-go use and digital minimalists. We leverage LLMs to maximize user productivity for tasks that would normally be performed on the phone, while access to social media or modern electronic entertainment options are naturally limited by Rist’s form factor.

We looked at a lot of previous devices like the Humane AI Pin, Rabbit R1, and others, and we've opted for a simpler, more open, and developer-friendly approach. Rist provides access to the rich ecosystem of LLM workflows that developers have built across various platforms, allowing them to integrate applications without navigating a lengthy approval process.

This first version has a minimalist interface with text and voice input, with optimized battery life designed to last for days. The watch supports displaying images, text, and playing voice or streamed audio content. We'll provide comprehensive documentation for developers on managing these capabilities through their endpoints.

We are a small team of talented engineers working to keep costs down as much as possible so that we can meet our price point goal of under $100 per unit with a few color options.

Join our waitlist for updates and early access: aris.chat/rist-waitlist

You're right. Parents can google it and explain it to their kid. Parents can find the answer in an encyclopedia, find a book about it, or find a youtube video for them. There are lots of options. I hope we didn't offend you.

As parents ourselves, we think it's helpful for kids to have independent access to the world's knowledge. We've found it helps them feel they can learn as far as their curiosity takes them instead of waiting for library day or waiting for us to look things up for them. Statistics show that most parents just end up letting their kids use Google independently, which has led to half of children today stumbling on adult images and videos by 12. For some reason, I don't see a lot of people criticizing that. Perhaps, because they don't market to kids. Kids just use it. That's probably what will happen with AI tools that don't specifically market to kids. They will have adult content, kids will get exposed, but they won't be blamed because they didn't market to kids.

We understand all parents have different opinions on these things. We basically just built the tool we want for our kids, and we want to give interested parents an extra option if they want it. One where it is impossible to find adult images, video, links, or advertisements.

We have added a much thicker filter layer for the moderation, so it should be working much better now.

This has been fixed now. Thank you for pointing it out.

Thank you for this. We are fixing this now.

For questions their parents know the answers to, absolutely. That is the best idea. But the alternative to an LLM chatbot isn't their parents, it's Google. And Google has been showing kids pornography for decades. So, why not give kids access to information that does not also have access to pornography?

We will think more about that. Maybe we can allow parents to comment, rate, or correct responses in the child's logs. Thank you for the feedback and suggestion.

I use LLMs to answer questions every day, and I've found it to be healthier than Google where the average age for kids to stumble across adult content is 12.

It's short for Aristotle, so the pronunciation may be different.

I have heard of books, but my kids prefer to have a large percentage of the knowledge of books on their wrist, such that if they see a clam at the beach and want to know about it, we don't need to wait until library day on Tuesday.

Thank you, this is an easy fix. We will add this change ASAP.

That is good. Our goal to be competitive is to be cross-device and to try to give parents a level of control over information that they've not had before.

Wonderful feedback, thank you. We are a movies only and only on the weekends family as well.

- We log the questions asked in each child account for parents to view in the parent account, but the questions are only logged when they're signed in.

- Regarding giving the answer rather than fostering the process of discovering the answer, this is something we've gone back and forth on. I think we will add a setting for this in the parent's settings for each child account. We've talked to parents who want one or the other, so we will work on adding it as an option to just give them answers right away or have it start those teaching moments.

We appreciate these suggestions, thanks!

That's actually kind of the response I'd want for my kids, but we do need to put in checks for potentially sensitive topics like this. Ideally, parents can have it in their moderation settings to determine what perspective, if any, it takes on these issues.

Thank you for the feedback. I will check out Kagi. Ideally, I don't want my kids to have access to the links. I'd prefer if it's just the answer. Then it's easy for them to do voice only over the Apple watch. They don't really have to look through results. They are just told whether or not ladybugs have proboscises.

They aren't in print anymore for 2025, but World Book is here: https://www.worldbook.com/world-book-encyclopedia-2025?srslt...

But even if it was only $100, imagine having all of that information and more in a watch on my wrist for free. That's basically what Aris does, and we are doing our best to make sure parents can control the information and perspectives their kids get.

This is a good idea. I suppose it will depend on whether or not the user has family around, but I like the idea of having clever ways like this of encouraging interaction with humans. Like if it is asked for a recipe, it returns one, then suggests the user ask others for alternative ways of doing things or suggestions or things like that.

You're right. Libraries are also available for free to read through World Book and others. I'm excited though for my kids to be able to identify birds right in the forest by asking their watch.

You're right that it does answer "what happened to ___". We'll work on that. I suppose this is a benefit to no links or photos, but decisions about whether to provide information like this and whether or not to tell them what to do in emergencies, are decisions best left to parents, so I'll add that to our list for the parental moderation options. Thank you.

For my own kids, I think I'd prefer it not to instruct the child do do anything in any circumstances, unless they explicitly ask how to do something. In cases of health emergencies, I think it's important for my kids to be able to call 911. Maybe these are decisions we can have in the parental settings, so parents can make that decision.

We want parents to make decisions about these things as much as possible. I don't have an issue with my kids getting details on human anatomy, as long as it's not pornography. But everybody is different.

We'll keep testing and working to improve it. Thank you for the feedback.

I imagine the reason social media isn't regulated is because they don't market to kids even though kids use it.

I appreciate this concern. I definitely don't want another layer of tech between myself and my kids. We will reconsider our marketing. I think the issue though is that even though kids use Google, Google doesn't market for kids, so they can show explicit stuff even with safe search on. So we're in a situation where there is only adult websites that kids use and worthless entertainment garbage that is marketed to kids.

Maybe you're right though. Maybe trying to create something that just provides information without drawing users in and replacing human connection is a losing game because of the marketing challenges.

These are great points. The #1 concern I have as a parent and that I hear from other parents is that AI tools will do what technology has been doing for the last 20 years: replace human connection. That is exactly what we are trying to avoid but in a way that still gets kids access to knowledge and information that could make their lives better.

That's great that you had the opportunity to ask your parents those questions instead of seeking them out with technology. There are a lot of questions that could help kids lead better lives that many parents don't have answers to. Not necessarily philosophical ones, but practical ones about how to cook, identify insects, you name it, about the physical world. We want to fill that need without replacing any of the parental or family connection.

I don't think that a cleverly designed product can make that decision though. I think families need to be making the decision about what their relationship with tech should be. Ideally we would be a tool for families that have made the decision to not overly rely on tech. We will ponder more on that point. Thank you for the thoughtful input.

Thank you for the feedback. Glad to hear it didn't go into detail on human anatomy. We haven't been able to get it to tell us where to find graphic videos of a man being shot to death, but we will keep testing and work to improve it.

We will do some more internal discussion on whether or not we want it to be the tool to provide emergency assistance. I'm not sure that's ethical. We have a team member with a decade of child education experience, but we can consider other advisors.

I may be misunderstanding your message. Are you saying I couldn't be bothered to write the app?

What do you oppose about it? Is it the idea of having an AI tool interact with kids at all? Or something else?

I will look more into their brand. Thank you.

Thank you for pointing this out. We haven't been able to replicate this, but we will keep testing and work to improve on it.