Now what is this thing? Well based on their demo video above, the AI pin is essentially a proprietary, AI-focused hardware device with a new operating system focused not on traditional applications, but direct integration into AI services like ChatGPT , as well as services like Tidal for music streaming. It runs a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and while running on an internal battery, it also has magnetic battery booster packs that allow you to essentially run it perpetually during the day by swapping them out, and for internet connectivity it currently works with eSIM functionality from American mobile network T-Mobile. The device also has a wide-angle camera with motion and depth sensing and a laser projector that essentially projects the visible UI like texts, and the music player on your hand .All in all the device costs $700 and requires $24 to connect to Humane’s “Humane Network” service, that includes the SIM subscription as well as Humane’s cloud services such as the AI’s notes app , your preferences and so on.

And honestly, at first glance this seems like an odd, but novel concept. AI is of course the biggest thing in tech right now, and making a product that is meant to enhance that AI experience. It’s also , at least on some paper , a way to redefine the current personal computing paradigm, cutting away the app, ad and operating system ecosystems that dominate modern life and how those models sometimes increase the difficulty of computing rather than decreasing it. Instead this is a product meant to make everything easier through AI and lead people to exactly what they need whenever they need it, making us focus on what’s important. Yet clearly a huge part of the internet doesn’t believe this, why?

Well for starters, we come back to the most important question in tech : The Why Question. Almost every product that’s been successful answers this question, some better than others, but they still answer it. Why does the iPhone exist? Because in the late 2000s we needed a refined, effective approach to the emerging smartphone market and the iPhone was that. Why do smartwatches exist? Because they create the link between personal health and technology and help us to make better health choices in our day to day. Even The Amazon Echo and Alexa where to create a simple voice interface to access all the data Amazon knows about the web (and sell you amazon products). And to be fair Humane has it’s why, to create a direct link between information and you through AI. The only problem is it isn’t the only one doing this. In fact , everyone else has been moving to do this in some way or another since the big AI boom started this year. And Humane has no unique edge to help with that. It has a direct integration to AI services like ChatGPT sure, but to be honest that might not mean much when everyone can use ChatGPT on their phone anyway. 

Just last week OpenAI was showing off an enhanced ChatGPT experience with voice dictation and the app being able to speak to you, so that’s not a unique feature either. Add in that all it’s other big features either are similar : the shopping through image recognition feature is built into everything from smartphone apps to wearables like Meta’s new smart glasses , The voice translation is the biggest feature of Google’s Pixel buds, and things like navigation , web searches , reading texts and emails have been built into even old AI assistants like Siri. To be fair, there does seem to be an extra level of personalization with the Pin’s AI, something that Humane is talked about before in their press tours. There were dinner suggestions made based on allergies, as well as the ability to use image recognition to suggest how much protein was in some nuts and while there are AI products that do that , none do it with exactly the same level of combined personalization as Humane. However, this seems like a feature update away for the likes of Google Assistant, and that AI is in Google and Samsung’s smartwatches so it can have even more health data and give even better health tips based on your vitals.

And this is where Humane hits a wall, it’s AI Pin doesn’t seem to serve you anything unique despite actually costing a pretty hefty price as well. Right now $700 can buy you a Galaxy S23, ASUS Zenfone 10, an iPhone 14 (or 15 if you catch it on sale), tons of mid range champions like the Nothing Phone 2, smartwatches, Game consoles, even a pretty good mid range laptop live a Dell precision line or older Surface device, and a whole host of other things. Simply put, $700 is too much, and that’s before considering the $24 monthly subscription. In fact owning and using an AI Pin for a year costs literally $988, in which for a thousand dollars I could throw over 75% of the best tech products produced in the last 2 years for you to buy instead of this. And that’s without considering all the errors that the AI made in this demo which the internet kept bringing up. This is maybe a fairly usable first generation product in a very inaccessible price point. To say it needed an alternative approach, either Humane’s own AI or more pragmatically, a better price point, would probably have led to a much better reception. Humane seems to know that as well. Because the TED talk and Paris fashion week appearances the company has been involved in where to serve one purpose: branding. There’s a reason this company is made up of former Apple employees after all. Humane knows that when your product doesn’t outright surpass everyone technologically, you sell its experiences instead. Just look at how Apple sells how special the iPhone ecosystem is (even when sometimes it’s not) or how features like Facetime connect you to you loved ones as if WhatsApp, Messenger and Telegram don’t do the same. Humane was trying to sell the concept of an AI that doesn’t just integrate into your life, but different, high concept versions of life and culture such as educational talks and one of the biggest fashion events on the planet. It’s essentially looking for a way to seem unique through culture not through it’s actual tech, which is probably where the claims of “scam” or “fraud” from. Are they apt? Well, honestly, it’s too soon to tell, and personally I don’t think so either way But I do think Humane simply hasn’t made high enough of a value pitch for its product.

But, hopefully that changes. A part of me wants to see if a personal AI market can arise from the world we live in. And to be fair, Google and Apple or Microsoft aren’t going to launch that outright without some kind of competition. And Humane can theoretically become that competitor, though not with their current approach. Maybe if they partner with a smartphone company like Nothing? Thought that’s unlikely, so maybe more realistically, drop this product to $450- $500  and make their cloud service tiered, with more services for different tiers. Do that, and maybe, just maybe there’s a chance for Humane’s AI Pin. Otherwise, people will probably stick to the claims about this being stupid. They might not be right, but well, if the product just flops from day 1, most of us can’t ever find out now can we.

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