Logitech wants you to press its new AI button

By wazup on April 17, 2024 Comments Closed / 66 views

Logitech has its own AI Prompt Builder, and will ship at least one mouse with a dedicated AI button.

By Emilia David, a reporter who covers AI. Prior to joining The Verge, she covered the intersection between technology, finance, and the economy.

Logitech Signature AI Edition M750 with the Logi AI Prompt Builder window — a:hover]:text-gray-63 [&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-gray [&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-63 dark:[&>a]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-gray”>Logitech

Tomorrow’s AI PCs may not only have a Copilot key on their keyboards — Logitech is introducing its own way to summon ChatGPT, too. It’s called the Logi AI Prompt Builder, and it’ll use a dedicated button on your mouse or keyboard.

The Logi AI Prompt Builder doesn’t just present you with a chatbot, it gives you preset “recipes” to help you prompt it too. After I assigned an AI button to a Logitech mouse, I could ask it to “Rephrase” paragraphs of text, turn them into bullet points, make them shorter and more concise, or fit a specific word count. Another recipe helped me summarize press releases. And since I pay for ChatGPT Plus, I customized another recipe to generate an image.

a:hover]:text-gray-63 [&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-gray [&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-63 dark:[&>a]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-gray”>Screenshot: Emilia David/The Verge

Prompt Builder seems like it could actually be useful. But I had to get a new Logitech mouse to use it, as my own personal Logitech M557 that I bought in 2022 was deemed too old to work with the software. Also, it strangely only launched when I wasn’t on either of my two browser windows. (I found myself using a ChatGPT tab in my web browser, instead, since that way I wouldn’t have to click out of my browser.)

Logitech will also sell at least one mouse with a dedicated AI button you won’t need to map to its prompt builder: an AI edition of its M750 mouse with a teal-colored key to instantly launch it. It’ll only be available in the US and UK for $49.99 or £54.99 respectively. You don’t need the special edition AI mouse, but you do need a Logitech device, as the prompt builder is part of the company’s bundled Logi Options+ software.

For now, Logi AI Prompt Builder only works with ChatGPT and only understands English at launch. Logitech did say it’s working on linking it to other chatbots.

At the end of the day, this seems like a way for Logitech to sell more Logitech peripherals, and it likely won’t be the only company with such an idea. When the time comes that all PCs have dueling AI buttons, which one will you push to ask your chatbots a question?