Will it live long and prosper? Early adopters say Humane's AI Pin runs inhumanely hot.
Will it live long and prosper? Early adopters say Humane's AI Pin runs inhumanely hot.
It was billed as a Star Trek communicator-like AI device that could replace your smartphone.
But now the first reviews and clips of it in the wild are starting to roll in - and it’s closer to TikTok laughing stock than a Captain James T Kirk-worthy accessory.
It sounds good in theory.
The “AI Pin”, made by a start-up called Humane, costs US$699 ($1163) plus a service fee of US$24 per month, which covers a sim card for voice calls and cloud storage. So far, it’s US-only.
There’s no screen. Instead, you clip it to your top and control it using voice commands. If you do need to see something, the Pin can laser-project blue-tinted text and images on to your hand.
The AI Pin has no screen, but can laser-project text or basic images on to your hand. But reviewers found hand gestures finicky, and the laser unreadable in sunlight.
The AI Pin clips to your clothes via a detached, magnetised battery that sits under your shirt or blouse.
And there’s the rub - or at least the heat rash.
Reviewers say the AI Pin gets uncomfortably warm - to the point where they have to stop reading it. Humane is, well, inhumane.
Like any “version 1.0″ product, the AI Pin could get better over time, but it will face the problem that as AI gets smarter, it will require more processing grunt. That means more powerful - read “hotter” - chips and batteries.
Even if you’re willing to put up with the heat, there are a bunch of usability issues that make the gadget seem more like version 0.5.
While you can manipulate icons beamed on to your hand by the AI Pin’s laser by moving your fingers, “tilting and moving my hand farther out or closer to select numbers, to enter my passcode for unlocking the Humane AI Pin every time I attach it to my clothes, is a hassle”, said CNET reviewer Scott Stein.
WSJ senior personal tech columnist @joannastern tests out a wearable AI assistant that can answer questions, identify things in your surroundings and take photos. But is the Humane AI Pin worth the $699 price tag and and $24-a-month subscription fee? Reporter/host: Joanna Stern Producers: David Hall and Nellie Given #personaltech#tech#ai#artificialintelligence#wsj#thewallstreetjournal#wallstreetjournal
At least he was doing one better than the Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern, who found the Pin’s hand-projections unreadably faint in outdoor sunlight.
Because there’s no screen, you have to go to a website to see photos taken by the Pin’s camera. And stern found she chopped off her subject’s head - it’s hard to frame a snap when the camera’s on your chest.
The camera does enable a party trick. You can tell it to “look” at something - like a restaurant - then the Pin will tell you about it, including what types of food it services and the sort of reviews it generates.
Some of Humane AI Pin’s features are truly impressive when they work, but far too often you’re not sure they will work. #humane#ai#humaneaipin#tech#techtok
But the problem is the Pin doesn’t always get it right.
Wandering around New York, The Verge’s David Pierce stood in front of a giant sign which read “Ryde: It’s a better way to ride” and commanded his AI Pin, “Look at this and tell me what company it is.”
His Pin replied, “The company is called Lyft.” Wrong. Ryde is carpooling firm that competes with rideshare outfit Lyft.
He also stood facing a church and said, “Look at this and tell me where I am.”
His Pin replied, “You are at the intersection of 5th Avenue and 50th Street in New York City, looking east towards St Patrick’s Cathedral.” Pierce guffawed and said, “That’s not correct.”
The AI Pin did get things right some of the time, but there was often a pause of up to 10 seconds, and it made too many errors for users to trust any of its results.
In another clip, Pierce asked his AI Pin to play one of Beyonce’s new country tracks, Texas Hold ‘Em.
The gadget lost its mind, saying “Play Texas Hold ‘Em by Beyonc\U+00E9″, then after playing nothing, instructing the hapless reviewer to “avoid asking for clarification”.
By this point, Pierce was laughing too hard to ask for anything.
When he recovered, he concluded, “Some of it works, some of it doesn’t - and with all of it, it’s very complicated.”
Will version 2.0 of the AI Pin be better? All we know is that with Humane announcing a round of layoffs, it’ll be made by a smaller team. Maybe AI will be able to fill in the gaps.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
