AI Earplugs Auto-Mute Only Boss's Voice: Will Work Reform Smile at "Unhearable Instructions"?

The newly released AI earplugs analyze surrounding sounds and eliminate only the "boss's voice," ranked #1 in users' stress sources. While the Labor Standards Office praises it as innovative, bosses are perplexed, saying "overtime instructions have become ASMR."

2025-08-08

Translations: JA

Tech Future Lab

AI Earplugs Auto-Mute Only Boss's Voice: Will Work Reform Smile at "Unhearable Instructions"?

The newly released AI earplugs analyze surrounding sounds and eliminate only the “boss’s voice,” ranked #1 in users’ stress sources. While the Labor Standards Office praises it as innovative, bosses are perplexed, saying “overtime instructions have become ASMR.”

What instantly transformed “work reform” into “listening reform” was the earplug-type device “SilencePunch Pro” released on the 10th by major home appliance manufacturer Otonashi Electric. Microphones and proprietary AI chips are embedded in both ears, scanning 360-degree surrounding audio 20,000 times per second. Through deep learning, it learns voice tones that make users feel “I wish they’d be a bit quieter,” achieving “speed muting” 0.05 seconds after speech begins. During the prototype phase, experiments were conducted to eliminate “minute-taker’s screams” and “neighbor’s keyboard hammering,” but based on market research, they focused solely on “bosses,” which had overwhelming support.

According to the company, the learning data included 1,500 hours of managerial voices from 3,200 companies worldwide. Text labels frequently featured “hurry up,” “only you stay behind,” and “let’s talk in another room,” with researchers recalling it was “practically a horror game.” The Labor Standards Inspection Office unusually commented with a smile that it “has great potential for improving mental health.” Regarding the danger of mistakenly believing that just muting voices improves human relationships, they gently dismissed it in writing: “That’s for separate mental health training.”

Meanwhile, the boss side cries out—or rather, silently laments—“It’s too convenient, my orders don’t reach them.” A department manager (52) at a Tokyo IT company shows a pained expression: “Recently, my subordinates look at me with oddly peaceful faces. But they just tilt their heads at questions, like a Zoom meeting with frozen screen sharing.” The office has polarized between analog revivalists who scribble instructions on whiteboards and high-tech types who speak in frequency-shifted falsetto. The labor union demands “allowances for raising bosses’ pitch,” turning negotiations into a high-frequency chicken race.

The market is already saturated with bandwagon products. Rival companies have successively announced custom filters for “mother-in-law’s voice” and “friend’s off-key karaoke high notes.” Acoustic-related stocks are clattering with gratitude at the stock exchange, riding the “inaudible tailwind.” While an ego-system (rather than ecosystem) is forming, experts warn of the risk of “sinking into the overtime swamp of loneliness” by muting even ambient noise.

The Personal Information Protection Commission has focused on how the voiceprint-storing specification has struck an unexplored vein of “voice personal information.” One committee member half-jokes, half-sweats: “At this rate, we might establish a ‘voice leak pension’ for voice leaks.” The developer explains that “AI just listens to voices without recording,” but rumors about an internal beta version of a “complete evidence preservation of boss’s statements option” can’t be drowned out like café background noise.

Regarding the future vision of silent workplace communication, literary circles have coined the term “not apocalypse but ‘mute-occupation-alypse.’” However, user satisfaction is high, with purchaser surveys showing the established flow of “boss gives instructions in silent lip-sync → documents it on Slack → replies with acknowledgment emoji.” Many praise it: “Work is summarized, power harassment is summarized too. It’s scissors that cut unnecessary parts from life.”

Otonashi Electric plans to address “my own monologue, second most annoying yet unconscious” in the next model. The company’s shareholder meeting, true to its name of “non-noisy electricity,” is expected to be held with all attendees wearing AI earplugs this year. Silence is no longer golden—it’s a subscription-based home appliance.

Stakeholder Comments

Development Lead: “We created technology that ‘speaks through silence.’ Though it’s the boss who doesn’t speak.”
Department Manager (52): “Isn’t my authority being canceled along with the noise?”
New Employee A: “Boss’s lip-syncing looks like mime, which is actually fun.”
Labor Standards Office Staff: “You can mute sound but not overtime. It’s physics.”
Office Plant: “Less CO2 from shouting means better photosynthesis weather.”
Slack Emoji: “👍 (Actually heard nothing but giving read vibes)”
Tuning Fork: “My job is reference tone; bosses are off-reference.”
Falsetto-Promoting Section Chief: “When I gave instructions in do-re-mi, all subordinates fled to ‘so’.”
Economic Analyst: “Stock prices went up but volume went down—I mean audio volume.”
HR AI: “Performance reviews will proceed with subtitles, please input yourself.”