Imagine a device that allows you to do effectively everything you do with your smartphone but….without it. A device that has no screens and uses the power of voice and AI to get things done. That is what the Humane AI Pin seeks to do.
At $700, this device hopes to help consumers be more present in the moment, by peeling them away from the screens they require to interface or interact with the world around them. Need to locate a place, you pull out your smartphone, you want to identify something, you pull out your phone, the majority of our interactions today require our smartphones and Humane AI wants to fix that with their device. However, this dream may not be as rosy and real as the company would like.
Early reviews of the Humane AI Pin seem to point to this device being a fail, and not just a ‘first generation’ fail (this means that in the tech space generally first-generation devices are expected to be not very good) but a failure that may be tied more into the ideology of it and also to a large extent its execution.
First, it would seem that the fundamental purpose of this device which is to use voice to respond to all user queries and provide answers via its AI, doesn’t particularly work well. Between its consistent need to be online, lagging when responding to queries, flat-out not answering, or giving the wrong response the primary functionality of the device seems to be dead on arrival. I will add however that with AI-related issues, time and data can improve it.
Secondly, the device costs $700 and requires a $24 monthly subscription to keep working. You can buy the hardware for $700, but you need to pay this subscription fee to get it running. If at any moment you don’t renew your subscription the device is virtually useless. The subscription enables you to access Humane AI’s services which include a series of services made by Humane AI enabling you to get things done. However, is that not just swapping your existing services to use a new service that does not have the hold, consistency, and credibility of existing services you already use?
Finally, the Humane AI Pin has a camera that it uses to interact with the world which is great but there isn’t a screen for you to see what is in its field of view, potentially resulting in your being fed the wrong information and being none the wiser since you can’t verify what it is looking at. For instance, let’s say you are looking at some couches and you want to order a specific one for delivery while window shopping. You tell the Humane AI Pin you want a specific couch, but you have no way of verifying that it sees the exact one you want. Also because of some of its AI response failures, it could make a mistake in the order.
Humane AI may have the right intentions, but it seems the reality of it is not as successful as they would like. But as with all things in the consumer market, the consumer is king so i ask; would you get a Humane AI Pin?
