Kevin Rose’s simple test for AI hardware — would you want to punch someone in the face who’s wearing it? (techcrunch.com)

Investor Kevin Rose gave a blunt litmus test for AI hardware at TechCrunch Disrupt: “If you feel like you should punch someone in the face for wearing it, you probably shouldn’t invest in it.” He argues many AI wearables — always-on cameras, microphones and devices that keep logs — violate social norms and privacy, creating awkward or harmful interactions (he cited the failed Humane AI pendant and using device logs to “win” an argument). Rose points out feature creep like image erasure and always-listening assistants that break trust and historical memory, warning we may be in an “early days of social media” moment where benign tech choices later feel problematic. His experience with Oura and other wearables informs a focus on emotional resonance and social acceptability, not just technical novelty. At the same time Rose is bullish about AI’s impact on entrepreneurship: generative tools (he cites OpenAI’s Sora and forthcoming Google Gemini 3) drastically lower development time, enabling “vibe coding” and letting founders delay or skip fundraising. That shift changes VC strategy — many firms are hiring engineers, but Rose believes the competitive advantage will be high-EQ investors who support founders’ nontechnical challenges. His investment playbook still prizes bold founders with a “healthy disregard for the impossible,” but filtered through human-centered design and social acceptability.