Inside Hark, the Secretive AI Bet by Tech Insiders

Another billionaire. Another AI company. But this one comes with a twist—and a designer who once helped shape the iPhone.

Brett Adcock isn’t new to ambitious bets. He sold Vettery, jumped into electric aviation with Archer, experimented with safety tech through Cover, and built Figure AI into one of the most talked-about humanoid robotics startups. Now he’s back, and this time the pitch feels bigger, stranger, and harder to pin down.

The new venture is called Hark. And unlike most AI startups chasing apps or APIs, Hark is chasing something more physical—something that quietly sits in your world and thinks alongside you.

Adcock’s vision leans toward a full-stack AI ecosystem: foundation models, custom hardware, software layers, and entirely new interfaces. Not just smarter tools, but something closer to a companion. A system that anticipates, acts, and reduces the mental clutter of everyday decisions.

In his words, the goal is simple to describe and difficult to execute: build technology that “thinks like you—and sometimes ahead of you.”

From iPhone Design to an Unfinished Future

The most revealing detail about Hark isn’t the product. It’s the people.

Abidur Chowdhury, a former Apple design lead, has joined as a key figure. At Apple, he worked closely on the iPhone Air and was trusted enough to present it publicly—a signal of rising influence inside one of the world’s most design-obsessed companies.

Then he left. Quietly. Right after the iPhone Air launched to decent reviews but underwhelming market impact.

Now we know where he landed.

Chowdhury’s presence hints at what Hark might become: not just functional AI, but something deeply considered in how it looks, feels, and fits into daily life. His early comments reinforce that idea—technology shouldn’t demand attention, he argues. It should fade into the background and remove friction between people and the world around them.

That’s a subtle critique of today’s screens. And possibly a clue.

Hark is reportedly building a device that stays near the user, listens, responds conversationally, and performs tasks continuously throughout the day. Think less “open an app,” more “have a presence.”

But specifics? Still under wraps.

Big Hardware, Bigger Questions

Behind the scenes, Hark isn’t operating like a small experiment. The company has assembled a team of over 45 engineers and researchers from places like Tesla, Meta, and Apple. It’s also investing heavily in compute, with plans for thousands of NVIDIA B200 GPUs—hardware that signals serious intent in training large-scale AI systems.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has already thrown his support behind the effort, framing it as part of a broader shift toward “personal AI agents” that understand context and act independently. Notably, NVIDIA is also tied to Adcock’s Figure AI, suggesting a deeper ecosystem forming around his ventures.

Still, there’s a lingering problem. No one has cracked the physical AI device—at least not yet.

Meta’s smart glasses have found a modest foothold, but the category is better known for misfires. The Rabbit r1 stumbled. Humane’s AI Pin struggled. Even niche experiments like the Friend pendant raised more eyebrows than expectations.

The idea is compelling: reduce reliance on smartphones, replace constant tapping with natural interaction. The execution? That’s where things tend to fall apart.

Hark is stepping directly into that gap.

Whether it becomes the breakthrough product the industry has been circling—or just another ambitious miss—depends on something no press release can fully explain yet: what, exactly, it is.

For now, the mystery is doing part of the work.

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