"Black Mirror?": Public Sensemaking of AI-Powered Lifelogging

2026-09-28

AI Summary

This study investigates public perceptions of AI wearable lifelogging devices, exemplified by the Looki L1, regarding privacy, ethics, and societal implications. Conducted during the product’s market-entry phase, this research systematically analyzes bilingual (Chinese and English) social media data by integrating large-scale text mining, topic clustering, and inductive thematic analysis. The findings reveal that while users across both cultural contexts share concerns about dystopian imaginaries and privacy compromises, significant cross-cultural differences emerge regarding power dynamics and governance surveillance. This work elucidates the inherent tension between surveillance anxieties and assistive value engendered by AI-driven memory archiving. Ultimately, it provides empirical evidence for understanding culturally differentiated public perceptions of emerging AI technologies within cross-cultural contexts.

Abstract

AI-powered lifelogging wearables are emerging as a new class of consumer devices that transform everyday experience into searchable, AI-curated memory archives. We study early public sensemaking around these systems at the moment of their market entry, using the Looki L1 as an empirical lens. Analysing large-scale Chinese-language and English-language social media discourse (N = 5,053 comments), we combine topic clustering with inductive thematic analysis to examine how users interpret the social, moral, and political implications of AI-mediated memory. Across contexts, users reference dystopian surveillance imaginaries, express privacy resignation and bystander concerns, and debate assistive value alongside consumer logics. English-language comments more often framed these devices through interpersonal power, evidentiary use, and hacking anxieties, while Chinese-language comments more often foregrounded labour exploitation, governance surveillance, and technological inevitability.

Problem

• AI-powered lifelogging
• public sensemaking
• wearable devices
• privacy concerns
• cross-cultural discourse

Innovation

• Topic Clustering
• Inductive Thematic Analysis
• Cross-lingual Discourse Analysis
• AI-powered Lifelogging
• Computational Social Science