The startup Humane, founded by former Apple employees, dreams of replacing the smartphone with a pin that attaches to the t-shirt, a picoprojector and artificial intelligence. The first videos shared by the brand show a product that does not look very ergonomic.
With its Ai Pin, will Humane replace the smartphone or be a big flop? Observers of the new technology sector have been asking this question since Humane, after spending years talking about its project, unveiled its first product on November 10. Marketed only in the United States for the moment, the Ai Pin is a fairly unique invention, both in terms of its concept and its economic model. You have to pay $699 to get it, then pay $24 a month to keep it running.
Will the Humane Ai Pin replace the smartphone? Everything suggests not. The first videos of the product show that it is more of a luxury accessory than a revolutionary mobile terminal.
The Ai Pin seems difficult to use
To interact with an AI Pin, there are two possibilities:
- You can touch it to speak to it (no keyword exists to trigger the voice assistant, probably for reasons of autonomy),
- You can project an interface on your hand, with monocolor text. We then use our fingers, with pinches, to select content and we move our palm to scroll through the text.
It is precisely this second aspect that is worrying. A video published by Bethany Bongiorno, the co-founder of Humane, wants to reassure about the ease of using the Ai Pin to respond to a message. It has the opposite effect, since it shows an unnatural interface, based on numerous finger pinches, hand movements and a not very clear display. Added to this is the obligation to send a response in a list, since there is no keyboard. How can this type of interaction be simpler than writing a message on your phone or watch?
If hand tracking seems functional, Humane seems to have made life complicated. The Ai Pin could be a good product, without being a replacement for the smartphone.
Voice control is cool, but slow
In another video, Humane demonstrates voice control of the Ai Pin. Here there are no projections and complicated gestures. We touch the pin, we talk to it and we wait for a response. Humane uses OpenAI servers and must therefore welcome the return of CEO Sam Altman, while the company was threatened with disappearance.
As with a connected speaker, the Humane Ai Pin does not respond instantly. It takes time to analyze the issue, which could become frustrating for first-time users of the device (especially when they have a bad network). The absence of a keyword and the obligation to touch the object is also problematic, especially when your hands are full.
Will this function be enough to make the Ai Pin the replacement for the smartphone? For the moment, we doubt it. Especially when you add up the costs: it takes 1,275 euros over two years, when you take into account the amount of the subscription.
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