A few days ago, we wrote an article discussing the Humane AI Pin and the Rabbit R1. While writing that piece, though $700 seemed a hefty price , the Humane AI Pin appeared to be a reasonably promising next-generation wearable AI gadget for its claims and promises. However, since its release to the public, things are not looking good for Humane. Reviews across the board have been bad.no one can seem to figure out the point of having the device and on top of that $700 plus a $24 monthly subscription phew!
Overview of the Pin and Promised Idea
The Humane AI Pin is a small, standalone wearable device with its own internet connection and phone number. It packs impressive hardware into its aluminum body, including a camera, microphone, laser projector, and touch controls that allow you to interact through voice commands or gesture controls projected onto your hand. (yes, it has a small projector in it)
The idea is that this AI assistant goes everywhere with you, always connected to answer questions, provide recommendations, take notes, make calls, and more through natural language conversations. It wasn’t supposed to replace your phone completely but surely it was made to reduce your dependency on phones less and to make AI more accessible and seamless. So far it hasn’t been the case though
If it worked properly it could have done
- Hands-free note-taking and reminders while driving / doing other engaging thing.
- Hands-free First-person video recording.
- Real-time language translation.
- Voice-controlled queries for information.
- Visual analysis and scene description e.g describing number of calories in your food.
Impressive Hardware Overshadowed by Software Flaws
The hardware design and build quality are impressive and I personally found the small laser projector to be fascinating in that small form factor, but the AI Pin falls woefully short in its current software implementation. Frequent issues include:
- Slow response times as most queries are processed in the cloud
- Inaccurate answers and hallucinations from the AI
- Inconsistent and poor battery life requiring frequent charging
- Limited functionality with no third-party app integration
- Inferior photo/video quality compared to smartphones
- The laser projector works, but it’s very tough to see in a well-lit environment.
If we look at the concept of the Pin, I’ll be honest it looks good, but Humane fell short in its execution. It could have been a very good product, if it was just connected to your phones, but then it would contradict their original idea of pseudo replacing the phone, then again it would have made the product way better.
As Marques Said, Smartphones are too OP
Ultimately, the Humane AI Pin suffers from trying to replicate and surpass the functionality of modern smartphones that already work extremely well. Your smartphone takes better pictures, can easily make calls/texts, quickly looks up information online, and provides a wealth of apps and services. And our whole world and suite of apps is designed to function centering the smartphone.
The AI Pin’s inability to connect and sync with your existing phone data means it lacks context about your life, schedules, contacts, and preferences that would allow it to be a truly intelligent assistant. Your phone has almost everything on you, but in order to use the Pin in the same context you have to retrain it from square one. Also all of the information is kept on its website.
All of the notes you take or calls or queries you make with the AI pin is stored on their website, it doesn’t sync up with your notes app or google search or call logs on your phone, so if you are using the Pin in a regular basis , Now you have to maintain two separate places of information, one is your phone and the synced apps and the Humane web portal.
The lack of knowledge about you can be overcome if you continue using it and feed it information, but there is way too much friction in the process, and nobody is likely to do it given its hallucinations and slow response.
Our thoughts
While the Humane AI Pin is a great feat of Hardware Engineering, It gives us an idea about what wearable AI assistants could be in the future. But unfortunately it’s not nearly there yet.
In some cases it may look cool or perform a few tasks correctly but in almost all cases you’re better off using your phone. The idea was great but present execution not so much.
Any chance of redemption?
If Humane tackles the issues mentioned by all of the reviews, I still think they can turn this around. They have an amazing set of engineers to work with, as evident from the hardware’s quality.
However, if they wait for AI and internet speeds to improve significantly it would be a bad idea. Instead, they should find a way to sync the Pin with your phone’s data and apps (and deviate a bit from their original idea) or figure out how to process large language model queries locally on the Pin itself, eliminating the need to fetch information from the cloud. If they can achieve this, the Pin could become a good product. Also they should reconsider their pricing as well.
