Do you remember Humane’s AI Pin? It was a small $700 device that was supposed to replace your phone, using AI to answer any question and solve all your problems. Well, guess what? It flopped. And now the company behind is being bought by HP, and all the AI Pins still out there will stop working in about a week.
Tech startup Humane’s small, wearable AI Pin launched in April 2024. It was pitched to the world (and investors) as a Star Trek-like combadge that could tell you the time, answer questions about any topic, translate language on the fly, and even play music. And all of this was done via a single tap on the device and voice commands. If this sounds too good to be true, well, you are apparently smarter than a lot of the people who invested money in this thing. The AI Pin was a disaster. Reviews called it bad and claimed it was often wrong, assuming it even worked at all. Others pointed out that everything it did was stuff your phone could do already, and your phone could do far more via its touchscreen. By August 2024, people were returning their AI Pins back faster than Humane was selling them. In October, the device’s price was dropped to $400. And now, anyone still using the AI Pin will soon be screwed.
On February 18, Humane announced that most of the company had been acquired by printer magnate and computer maker HP for $116 million. Humane also announced that it was immediately stopping all sales of its AI Pin. But that’s not all: All remaining AI Pins out in the world will stop working on February 28.
Technically, the device will still be sort of functional, but it will only be able to do tasks that don’t require the cloud or AI features. Humane mentions the ability for the device to tell you how much battery charge it has left as a feature that will still work. Wonderful.
Anyone who bought a AI Pin in the last 90 days can return the device for a refund. But for everyone else who bought one early and held onto their tiny little AI box, they won’t get a penny back.
“First and foremost, thank you for being an early adopter of Ai Pin,” posted Humane.
“Your support, feedback, and enthusiasm have been instrumental in shaping this technology, and we are truly grateful to have had you on this journey with us. We are writing to inform you that, effective immediately, we are winding down the consumer Ai Pin as our business priorities have shifted.”
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