Hot takes on Humane’s AI Pin

Imagine an Apple Watch, but worse.

Imagine that this Apple Watch costs twice as much as the base model, but looks like an old anti-theft device that your clothing store’s cashier forgot to take out of your brand new jacket.

Imagine a device double the size of an Apple Watch, but can barely do anything health-related — no heart rate, no activity tracking, no step monitoring — but instead offers a camera you will barely want to use, ashamed at the idea of being identified as a creep, à la Google Glass.

Imagine that the main feature of this device is something that will likely become a standard function on smartphones, smartwatches, and even earbuds: interacting with a smart, new generation A.I. assistant using only your voice.

Imagine having CarPlay with you all the time.

Well, the good news is you don’t have to imagine this device. It was just unveiled this week by Humane as the $699 AI Pin.

For starters, what a terrible company and product name “Humane AI Pin” is. In French it’s also impossible to pronounce without sounding either extra pretentious or completely butchering the name.

The first comments from the tech world are, well, not good, to say the least.

I still think there are some cool ideas behind this though. I like the idea of a “not thinking about it” kind of personal technology. An ambient intelligence assisting you wherever you are and whatever you do obviously has a lot of potential. I see this as a new, modern take on the old “Google search in your pocket” but this time without the pocket, search, or Google constraints.

Does it mean it will replace the device in that pocket?

Like Om Malik explains:

It’s not about replacing current devices but rather introducing a new way of interacting with technology and, in the process, moving personal computing forward.

Indeed, maybe such intentions should be applauded, I agree. A rectangle made of glass and metal that lives in our pockets may not be part of the future we deserve. But if the vision is interesting and bold, there are major flaws with the execution of the AI Pin, and like many other authors of articles I’ve read on the topic, I have gigantic doubts of its potential success.

Michael Tsai points out that the wearable aspect of the device is not a great idea in real life:

The form factor of a pin, so that it must be moved whenever you add or remove a layer of clothing, seems like a disaster.

I’m trying to picture someone wearing an AI Pin in the middle of winter: do you wear it under your coat? over your coat? What happens when you go inside? Do you attach it to your sweater? What if you want to remove your sweater? What if you need to go back outside? It sounds like a disaster indeed, not to mention how the pin can potentially damage clothes by stretching them due to its weight.

Also, the fact that interacting solely through voice is not practical in society. Privacy concerns aside, just imagine trying to read or sleep while sitting on a train where multiple individuals are attempting to engage with their AI Pin using voice: sounds like a great trip.

To me, the whole concept would make more sense if it were just some kind of a new smartphone or wearable OS that could interact with you the same way the AI Pin does, but could also double as a regular smartphone (or else) for the times when you can’t interact by voice, or simply want to do everything else.

The idea of a smart, always-on, always-on-you machine is great, but it feels that the concept first needs to be a feature added on top of devices we currently own, rather than another dedicated piece of hardware to buy. At least for now. After all, don’t our phones and smartwatches already have microphones, speakers, high-end chips, and network connectivity?

Outside of the camera, what justifies the use of custom hardware in the AI Pin’s functionality? I feel like it would have been better received (and cheaper) if it were created in a smartwatch or smart band form factor, with a proper screen.

When you see how the new finger tap thing of the Apple Watch allows people to interact with their device without touching the screen, it is easy to see that the wrist might be a better and more practical placement for this kind of wearable, do-it-all computers.

Only the camera part would really be trickier on a wrist-worn device. I’m sure the camera can live on another, separate device, or can work its way on the device itself. I’m not sure I can picture people taking pictures of their food like Spider-Man shoots webs, but who knows?

Maybe this should have been a new kind of smart speaker instead of a “pin”? Something you put on your desk, or kitchen table? Why the constraint of making it wearable? That might have been a simpler initial move and would have allowed more time for executing on the A.I. and software components.

Like Nick Heer writes:

You can think of it as the answer to the question what if you could wear a smart kitchen speaker? and it sounds kind of compelling or, at least, not stupid.

Not stupid indeed. I can see myself wanting something like that, somehow.

In an excellent summary of what I thought reading about this device, Stuff’s Craig Grannell writes:

I worry AI Pin is a feature wrapped around an ideology, masquerading as a product.

Call me unconvinced at best on the AI Pin. Certainly the demo video didn’t help as I found it a bit weird and self-congratulatory. Apparently, I’m not the only one, as Jeff Seibert points out on Threads:

Without passing judgment on the AI pin itself, the keynote is an abject disaster that does the product—and more importantly their team—a massive disservice. I would be devastated if I was an employee.

This whole brand gives off strong Essential phone vibes, doesn’t it?

Also, nobody around me is talking about it. Sometimes I have friends or family talk to me about the latest shiny things: ChatGPT, Vision Pro, DALL-E, etc. I even had a conversation with one of the bakery employees about the Apple Watch’s finger interaction feature (I used my Apple Watch to pay for bread and I suppose they’ve come to know me as “the Apple Watch guy”). But the Humane AI Pin? Not even a blip on the radar.

This product also made me realise that the media and the hype around personal technology can sometimes be ridiculous: why is there so much media coverage around this little device that barely does anything worth anyone’s attention?

Aren’t there other technological innovations that can be covered the same way as the latest gadget nevermind how shitty it is? Maybe in water treatment? Energy consumption? Agriculture? Public health? That would be the humane thing to do: put the spotlight on innovations that are at least pretending to help the world become a better place. But that’s a rant for another day.