Humane Debuts The $699 AI Pin, A Pocket-Sized Digital Assistant Without A Screen 22/01/24, 17:19

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Humane
Debuts The
$699 AI Pin,
A Pocket-
Sized Digital
Assistant
Without A
Screen
Richard Nieva Forbes Staff
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0 Nov 9, 2023, 01:13pm EST

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Humane Debuts The $699 AI Pin, A Pocket-Sized Digital Assistant Without A Screen 22/01/24, 17:19

Humane AI's new device, the AI Pin HUMANE AI

The much-hyped device hopes to usher

in a world beyond smartphones—an
area where several companies have
tried and come up short.

After months of hype, Humane, a San

Francisco-based artificial intelligence company,
on Thursday launched its first product: the AI
Pin, a digital personal assistant housed in a tiny,
square-shaped piece of hardware.

Unlike a phone, the device has no screen. It’s a

small gadget with a magnet that pins it to a
wearer’s clothes. A camera and sensors scan a
wearer’s environment and pick up on contextual
cues for answering queries, like where to shop
when visiting a new city. White it is primarily
voice activated, it has a tiny projector to beam
out laser icons and text on a user’s palm. The
company touts computer vision features—like
holding up a piece of food to the device to get an
evaluation of nutritional value, as well as

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Humane Debuts The $699 AI Pin, A Pocket-Sized Digital Assistant Without A Screen 22/01/24, 17:19

translation features that speak in the user’s own

voice.

The pin is powered by large language AI models

developed by Microsoft and OpenAI. It contains
a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, ultrawide
camera, and bluetooth connectivity. The device
will run on T-Mobile’s network and will cost
$699, plus $24 per month for a data
subscription and cloud storage. It will go on sale
November 16.

Humane was co-founded in 2019 by former

Apple executives Imran Chaudhri and Bethany
Bongiorno, a husband-and-wife team that
collectively worked on the Mac, iPod, iPad,
iPhone, Apple Watch, and iOS. Chaudhri
focused on user interface and interactions,
including helping to invent the swipe-to-unlock
feature that debuted in the first iPhone.
Bongiorno was a director of software
engineering who helped to launch the original
iPad. The cofounders have said the experience
of ushering in an age of touch computing mobile
phones inspired them to make a device that was
more minimal, an attempt to break people’s
modern addiction to screens.

“We started this journey because we thought it

was time for a shift,” Chaudhri told reporters on
Thursday at Humane headquarters in San

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Humane Debuts The $699 AI Pin, A Pocket-Sized Digital Assistant Without A Screen 22/01/24, 17:19

Francisco. “The last era has plateaued.”

The AI Pin HUMANE AI

Some critics of the AI Pin fear the device’s

camera could inspire privacy concerns by
recording video of people who might be
unaware they are on camera. To mitigate them,
the company built in what it calls a Trust Light
to indicate when the device is in use. The
company also said the device’s microphone is
not always on and listening for wake words like
Amazon Echo or Google Home smart speakers.
Instead, Humane’s system must be manually
activated.

At Humane’s offices, a sparse design lab in San

Francisco's SOMA neighborhood, executives
showed off product features including playing
music, asking for restaurant recommendations,
and taking photos. Interacting with the device
involves using several hand gestures, like
pinching your fingers together or closing your

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Humane Debuts The $699 AI Pin, A Pocket-Sized Digital Assistant Without A Screen 22/01/24, 17:19

hand into a fist. The company would not let

press take photos or videos during demos, or
use the devices themselves.

At launch, there seem to be a few issues in need

of ironing out. It takes the device a few seconds
to respond to questions, a lag that feels more
pronounced when you're not staring at a screen
with visual cues. Laser projections were also
hard to read in text-heavy situations, like
changing device settings. In those cases, the
green laser projection was more reminiscent of
an MS DOS program than a futuristic operating
system.

The device also has trouble citing sources when

it answers a user query—a functionality the
company said it hopes to bake into the
experience soon. In one demo, the user asked
for the best sushi restaurants in San Francisco.
When the user followed up by asking for
sources, the device said it couldn't process the
question.

Prior to the launch on Thursday, Humane had

teased the device several times in a flashy
awareness campaign. Supermodel Naomi
Campbell wore the pin on the runway at Paris
Fashion Week. Earlier this year, Chaudhri
demoed a few features during a presentation at
TED, including taking phone calls via laser

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Humane Debuts The $699 AI Pin, A Pocket-Sized Digital Assistant Without A Screen 22/01/24, 17:19

projection and asking the device for gift ideas.

“Your AI effectively becomes an ever-evolving,
personalized form of memory,” he said at TED.
“And we think that’s amazing.”

Humane’s investors include Tiger Global

Management, Kindred Ventures, Qualcomm
Ventures and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

“We believe in a future where artificial

intelligence amplifies human potential, and
Humane shares this vision,” Altman said in a
statement. “We're proud to be partnering with
them to harness AI and redefine how we
interact with technology — and the world.” But
while Altman backs Humane, he is also
reportedly in talks with Apple’s legendary
former designer Jony Ive and Softbanks’s Masa
Son to develop a similar-sounding AI device.

As Humane tries to find its footing, the

company has its work cut out for it. While the AI
Pin has generated a lot of attention, wearable
computing has been a notoriously difficult
market for tech companies. Virtual reality
headsets from Meta and its ilk have mostly been
niche devices, unable to find wider traction.
Google created a spectacular flop more than a
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Humane Debuts The $699 AI Pin, A Pocket-Sized Digital Assistant Without A Screen 22/01/24, 17:19

people feared the camera could violate their

privacy with surreptitious recording. The device
was eventually banned from movie theaters and
other public places, and one person was
punched in a bar while wearing them.

Humane’s fiercest competitor in the wearable

market is likely from its cofounders’ former
employer. In June, Apple unveiled the Reality
Pro, a powerful mixed reality headset for
“spatial computing,” controlled largely through
hand gestures.

The startup’s announcement marks the

culmination of a months-long hype cycle. The
launch was reportedly initially set for last month
to coincide with the solar eclipse, but was
pushed back. On Thursday, Humane alluded to
more beyond its inaugural device. “For us, AI
Pin is just the beginning,” Chaudhri and
Bongiorno said.

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Richard Nieva Follow

I'm a Forbes technology reporter and senior writer

based in San Francisco. Send me tips at
rnieva@forbes.com or richardnieva@protonmail.com.

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