Humane's Uber-Expensive "AI Pin" Sounds Like a Total Disaster
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Secretive Silicon Valley startup Humane is set to unveil its long-rumored AI Pin at noon Eastern time today, a small rectangular device you can attach to the front of your garments and which the power of AI to assist you throughout your day.
But leaked documents obtained by The Verge ahead of the company's announcement have us seriously wondering about the small device's — and perhaps the company's — future.
For one, the AI Pin will cost a whopping $699 — for a device that doesn't even have a screen and instead projects its output onto the palm of your hand. And that's not to mention the $24 monthly T-Mobile subscription you'll need to let the device access Microsoft and OpenAI's AI models.
Is this really the kind of product that'll replace the slab smartphone we've grown so accustomed to over the last 15 or so years? If AI's here to say, won't it just embed into smartphones, like it's already quickly doing?
It certainly doesn't bode well, especially given the company's high-profile executive suite featuring Apple veterans and $230 million in investor funding over the last five years — an eternity in the tech world.
Inhumane Design
Early adopters beware. While $700 may already sound far too steep of a price for an entirely unproven technology baked into a first-generation product, there are more red flags that might make it an even riskier purchase.
The device will ship with two "battery boosters," per the report, suggesting that users will have to swap out new batteries throughout the day. We're still unclear on how long a single battery will last, but the fact that the company is shipping its product with two additional battery packs isn't exactly confidence-inducing.
Humane is also collaborating with music streaming service Tidal to allow an "AI DJ" to choose the music you're listening to. Whether that means Spotify or Apple Music subscribers will be out of luck remains to be seen.
As far as AI integration is concerned, Humane still has a lot to prove. Given the current state of the tech, we're not optimistic that such an AI will actually prove useful in a day-to-day setting. And that's not to mention current AI models' well-documented propensity to make up facts as they go.
In short, there's a lot we still don't know about the secretive device and we'll wait for Humane to make its full announcement before rendering our verdict.
But given what we've seen so far, it certainly doesn't sound like a product that'll be flying off the shelves — let alone one anybody should buy right out of the gate.
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