Last month, Humane — the company formed by ex-Apple execs — announced that its debut product would launch early next year. Now the company is ready to be a little more precise about the Humane Ai Pin’s release date.
In a post on X, the company revealed that the wearable will be making its way to early adopters’ chests in March.
We are thrilled to announce that Ai Pin will start shipping in March 2024.All of us here at Humane can’t wait for you to experience your Ai Pin, the world’s first wearable computer powered by Ai. We’re incredibly grateful for the enthusiasm and support, especially from our… pic.twitter.com/kTe4d3Jee7December 22, 2023
“To honor your early support, those who placed priority orders will receive their Ai Pins first when we begin shipping in March,” the company wrote.
After this initial batch is out of the way, all purchases will be shipped “in the order they were received, based on date of purchase,” which makes it sound like it’ll be a slow drip feed of supply after the early birds are dealt with.
“All of us here at Humane can’t wait for you to experience your Ai Pin, the world’s first wearable computer powered by Ai,” the company added. “We’re incredibly grateful for the enthusiasm and support, especially from our earliest supporters.”
First revealed back in early April via a leaked TED tech demo, the wearable is a bold attempt to imagine portable tech without screens. It’s a bit like having Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri pinned to your chest, only with a bit more functionality. The demo showed the Humane Ai Pin displaying call information on a person's hand via a projector and even scanning the ingredients of a candy bar looking for allergens that might harm the owner.
This clever functionality comes with a high price of entry: $699. And that doesn’t include the $24-per-month subscription fee required for the device to stay active.
Suffice it to say, those who have pre-ordered are taking a gamble here. Screens may get a bad rap thanks to the way they draw focus from the world around us and the generally addictive nature of smartphone apps, but they have big advantages that audio alone can’t replicate. You won’t be editing a spreadsheet on the Humane Ai Pin, and while you can pair it with Bluetooth headphones, you still have to speak your requests aloud, which isn’t good for privacy when out and about.
Nonetheless, we’re intrigued by the Humane Ai Pin. It’s a genuinely different way of thinking about technology, and the potential is there if the user experience is as seamless as the demo makes it look. We should find out in March when the first user reviews begin to pop up, and we get an idea of whether a second generation seems likely or not.
