The Humane AI Pin is out, and critics don't seem overly enamored by the new tech. When rounding up reviews, the best we could say about them was, "This is a disaster." Not a single publication seemed to have anything positive to say about the device or its AI capabilities.
When I heard from Bloomberg that Humane was looking to sell, this didn't come as a surprise at all. When I heard the company valued itself at somewhere between $750 million and $1 billion, I was a bit more surprised. What company would pay that kind of money for a $700 device that no one seems to like?
Humane never actually revealed an official valuation during its funding rounds, though The Information claimed the company is valued at around $850 million. Of course, that was last year before the utterly terrible reviews of the AI Pin started coming out.
For what it's worth, Managing Editor of Computing Jason England predicted that companies like Humane and Rabbit were only looking to be purchased by a larger firm like Apple, and this report seems to back up his idea. "But when I look at these companies, I can't help but feel there's an ulterior motive. Namely that the devices are more of a proof of concept that people can buy — the physical manifestation of a pitch deck for acquisition by the likes of Apple or Google," said England in a piece on Tom's Guide.
England even speculated that the phones we already carry are more powerful than any of these AI devices, and the companies behind the Pin and Rabbit R1 (which we also weren't too fond of) know this. "If I was to speculate wildly, though, surely with the people behind these devices being smarter than I am, they probably know that the smartphone they carry in their pockets will be much more capable of AI tasks than their own devices — without the need to wear it on your shirt/take up another pocket," he wrote.
If the plan was to sell all along, Humane seems to be walking that path well enough, though I'm sure the company would have been happier if its device had been a little better received. Or maybe it knew the device would bomb with end users while offering just what companies like Apple and Google are looking for to enhance the AI experiences provided by their phones and tablets.
We'll know soon enough if Humane gets snapped up by one of the tech giants. If the company sits on the market, perhaps its plan to sell may backfire. After all, the power of GPT-4o may have already killed both wearable AI devices.
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