Latest news with #HumaneAiPin
Mint
3 days ago
- Business
- Mint
Underdelivery: AI gadgets have been a let-down but needn't be
Where are all the artificial intelligence (AI) consumer gadgets? Even a year ago, it seemed tech companies were working to incorporate the technology into every physical device, from coffee makers to vacuum cleaners, making 'AI-powered' hardware seem like it would soon be as ubiquitous as 'battery-powered' electronics. Typically, tech conferences offer a glimmer of these futuristic toys. Not all of them end up hitting the market, but it's where we can dream a little about new pocket devices or household robots taking on a greater role in our lives. So it was a little disappointing last week at Asia's biggest artificial intelligence conference, Taiwan's Computex, to find hardly any mention of consumer-facing tech. Most keynotes focused on enterprise applications of AI, such as agents or automated manufacturing. Walking around the exhibitors' hall, the only thing that caught my eye were wireless computer mice shaped like cats. Also Read: AI as infrastructure: India must develop the right tech A few things seem to have changed. For starters, there's the reality that hardware engineering presents an entirely different set of physical challenges compared to tinkering with AI software. And a global trade war also makes it a risky time to launch a new gadget when it's unclear if consumers are interested. Companies also may be starting to pick up on the fact that while Wall Street is awash with global hype on an AI boom, it isn't exactly a selling point on Main Street. If anything, some of the executives speaking at the conference threw cold water on the next generations of these AI-first consumer products. Asustek Computer co-chief executive officer Samson Hu told Bloomberg News that it will take another year or more for AI-powered PCs to go mainstream because the technology isn't quite there yet and macroeconomic uncertainty is impacting people's spending. There have been few compelling use cases for AI PCs so far, despite the mountain of promotion. Meanwhile, the graveyard of AI hardware that was supposed to transform our lives is already growing. The Humane Ai Pin wearable device—launched last year to much hype about how it was going to replace the smartphone—got brutal reviews and turned out to be a fire hazard. The startup, run by two former Apple employees, stopped selling its Ai Pin earlier this year and was sold for parts. The Rabbit R1 assistant [a stand-alone hand-held AI assistant device] is another cautionary tale of the false promises of these gadgets. But that doesn't mean the future of AI consumer products is not on its way. OpenAI made a major announcement last week that it is working with legendary iPhone designer, Jony Ive, to launch something that takes AI into the physical realm for consumers. But even the might of OpenAI's technology and Ive's design prowess make whatever it is they have in mind a far-from-certain bet. Also Read: Dave Lee: Apple must make peace with developers for AI success There were perhaps some lessons for the future of such devices from the gathering in Taiwan. During his keynote speech, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said that AI computers are at a phase where they will require the work of outside developers to make them appeal to consumers. The iPhone, for example, didn't take off right after it was launched. But it became essential to so many people because of the myriad apps developers built on top of it that we now use to hail taxis, order food or move around new cities. 'Really, the developer ecosystem is going to make this shift to AI PCs," Amon said. He's right, and the same is true beyond just AI computers. For any revolutionary AI hardware device, especially a smartphone killer, the more that global developers lead the charge to meet peoples' needs and solve small everyday problems, the more likely they are to succeed. In this economy, maybe that doesn't mean repackaging the same old gadgets with shiny new AI labels. It means iterating and perfecting real use cases that incorporate the buzzy technology into devices and make our lives easier. And this will inevitably be a collective effort. Also Read: Can AI truly transform businesses? Yes, if adopted thoughtfully AI is already transforming our world in small ways. I find asking ChatGPT to quickly translate phrases for me while on the go a lifesaver when I need to navigate a new country. But I hardly want to shell out money to carry around a new device simply to access ChatGPT. The more the tech industry tries to slap AI onto everything and market it as a panacea for all our problems, the more I get a snake-oil salesman ick. The future of AI hardware won't come in a magical new gadget, it will be built by tackling these tasks one-by-one and not all at once. ©Bloomberg The author is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asia tech.
USA Today
08-03-2025
- Science
- USA Today
Humane AI pin fails: A $700 gadget adds to the global e-waste crisis
Humane AI pin fails: A $700 gadget adds to the global e-waste crisis Show Caption Hide Caption What is the 'Right to Repair' legislation introduced nationwide? Right to repair legislation has been introduced in all 50 states, marking a major victory for consumer rights. These laws ensure that consumers can access replacement parts, manuals, data and even specialized tools for maintaining their own devices. unbranded - Newsworthy The Humane Ai Pin promised to be the next big thing in wearable tech but the device failed to attract users, becoming instead a poster child for AI's contribution to the global e-waste problem. The pins were designed by artificial intelligence startup Humane to be worn on clothing and could be tapped to talk to a virtual assistant. Thousands of the $700 devices are now obsolete after Humane shut down its business in February and sold its assets to personal computer maker HP for $116 million, after receiving few orders and disappointing reviews for the product. The pins went offline on Feb. 28. Experts said the pin, like other AI-enhanced wearables, is difficult to recycle because of the large amounts of glue used in the devices, underscoring how AI products threaten to exacerbate the world's e-waste problem. "These products are designed based on the consumers' desires and affordability," said Berrin Tansel, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Florida International University. Making them easier to recycle would require the cost of the material recovery process to be fronted by the manufacturer, making them more expensive, Tansel told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Only 22.3% of the world's 62 billion kg of e-waste was recycled in 2022, according to the latest data available from the United Nations global e-waste monitor. Meanwhile, the use of the technology is only expected to grow. The International Data Corporation, a global analytics company, expects over 600 million wearable devices to be manufactured by 2028, up 20% from 2023. "(Wearable) electronics and AI are addictive for consumers. They enhance our abilities beyond what is possible naturally," said Tansel. "The gadgets are desired to be smaller and lightweight. That makes the recovery of materials for recycling purposes practically impossible. Even when recovery is possible for some metals from discarded products, it is not economically feasible." Wearable waste Electronic recyclers prioritize recovering undamaged components, such as screens, speakers and internal chips, which can be reused and sold. Afterwards, a device will be broken down for rare earth metals. Humane is encouraging users to recycle pins through any local e-waste programs. "At Humane, we are committed to sustainability, ensuring that both our packaging and devices can be responsibly recycled," it said on its website. But Shahram Mokhtari, a technician from repair company iFixit, said Humane's heavy use of glue makes recycling more expensive and environmentally hazardous. This additional labor cuts into recyclers' margins, making disassembly unprofitable, with only a fraction of the resources and work involved in making the devices in the first place likely to be recovered in the recycling process, Mokhtari said. More wearable tech news: Are Halliday's AI smart glasses an amazing new wearable or surefire way to cheat? "This thing was terrible for the environment even before it was discontinued. Glued in batteries that are hard to remove and impossible to get to will always result in unnecessary waste and pollution," Mokhtari told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by email. "This is now a sunk cost for consumers and the planet that will never be fully recovered," he said. When contacted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation about its plans for recycling the pin, Humane provided a link to the recycling advice on its website but declined to comment further. HP did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Another, more popular, wearable is Meta's Ray-Bans – glasses enhanced with microphones, speakers and an AI assistant. The tech giant has sold over 2 million units since 2023, according to EssilorLuxottica, which manufactures the glasses. When contacted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation for a comment on its plans for recycling the glasses, Meta referred to a blog post telling users to use local authorities or waste disposal services. But iFixit published a video in December 2023 showing that replacing the battery is difficult and removing components can only be done by destroying the plastic. "If you open these glasses up, don't expect them to go back together," the video said. "Cool glasses, but ultimately nothing more than vanity-fueled e-waste." When asked how it would ensure future products can be effectively recycled, Meta declined to comment. Long-life laws Legislation should be introduced to insist on easily-replaceable batteries in smartphones, laptops and AI-driven wearables, said Elizabeth Chamberlain, iFixit's director of sustainability. The European Union's 2023 battery directive is meant to ensure that batteries have a low carbon footprint, use minimal harmful substances, use less raw materials, and are collected, reused and recycled to a high degree. However, recycling capacity in the EU and Britain is only about a tenth of what is required to meet recycling targets by 2030, according to a 2024 report from T&E, a clean transport and energy advocacy group. The U.S. does not have an equivalent national law. Chamberlain said laws should require companies to disclose end-of-life plans at the point of sale. "In an ideal world, all products would become automatically open-sourced and part designs would become available when manufacturer support ends," she said. Tansel said that over time the materials used in small electronics will become more expensive, which could result in programs from companies to buy back old products for parts, but this is unlikely in the short-term. "Awareness of the potential impacts of waste and the significance of environmental quality (water, soil, air) on the well-being of humans is not at a level yet for the implementation of effective policies for the design and development of these products," she said. Reporting by Adam Smith, @adamndsmith, Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa The Thomson Reuters Foundation is the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters. Visit
WIRED
01-03-2025
- WIRED
The Humane Ai Pin Has Already Been Brought Back to Life
Feb 28, 2025 11:54 PM Humane bricked its pricey gadget on Friday afternoon. A short time later, a hacker got the codes to unlock it and potentially turn it into the true smartphone replacement it was meant to be. The day the Humane Ai Pin died, it was also reborn. Or at least, there was hope. On February 28, shortly after noon Pacific time, Humane switched off its servers supporting its contentious Ai Pin—essentially bricking a $700 device that was less than a year old. Minutes later, in a Discord voice chatroom with the label 'The death of Ai Pin,' one member of a band of dedicated hackers, determined to keep their Pins alive, let the rest of the group in on a secret. He had the codes they needed to get through Humane's encryption. Humane's gadget is the poster child of AI-enhanced hardware disappointments. The cute, clippable device was meant to hang on a lapel or shirt pocket and let you carry out many of the functions you'd find in a phone—take pictures, display text messages, and order around an AI chatbot, all with some added pizazz in the form of Humane's promised holographic laser displays. Released to the world in April 2024, the Pin was an immediate disappointment. Its main features simply did not work well, and from there things just got worse. The Pin was a resounding flop, widely mocked, and the company even reached the point where it processed more returns of the device than it had sold. In February 2025, less than a year after the Pin was released, Humane announced it would shut down its services at the end of the month—Friday, February 28—and part off some of its key AI components to the computer company HP. Humane offered few concessions to Pin owners. Refunds would only be given if someone had purchased a Pin within the past 90 days. For the remaining fans of the expensive, short-lived device, the move was a gut punch. In the final week of the Humane Ai Pin's short life, soon-to-be-former users ran through all of the stages of grief across Humane's subreddits and Discord servers. There were furious rebukes. Heartbroken goodbyes. Disappointment all around. 'We're super bummed,' says a Humane Pin user who asked to go by his X handle, @23box_, or just '23' out of fear of being targeted by 'a multi-billion dollar company beholden to shareholders.' He was an early adopter and evangelist for Humane's device who says he used the Humane Ai Pin regularly, up until the minute it went out of service. 'This is a super unique device that we used almost every day for almost a year. We really just wanted this to have a good run.' The official Humane Discord was shut down the morning of February 27. Luckily, 23 had already decided to start a separate Discord server for Humane refugees, called reHumane, in an effort to pursue unsanctioned forays into deconstructing the Pin away from the watchful eye of Humane or HP. 'We didn't want them to know what we were doing,' 23 says. Marcel, another user who gave only his first name to avoid exposing himself to reprisal from HP, saw the end of Humane's brief era as something exciting. He is used to tearing things like this apart. He has constructed his own PlayStation Portal out of a Nintendo Switch. He was one of the first people to transfer the Rabbit R1 source code onto an Android phone (much to the chagrin of a company that insisted its device was not simply an Android app). The Humane Ai Pin lineup. Courtesy of Humane As soon as Humane announced it would be bricking the device, he hurried to figure out how to crack the thing open. Lots of people on the Discord felt the same way—where once they owned a misunderstood, widely mocked device, now there was an opportunity. 'Everyone was pretty psyched to get into this,' Marcel says. The Humane Ai Pin runs an instance of Android as its OS, which means in theory the system could be debugged and have custom apps sideloaded onto it. But the Pin needed to be able to connect to another computer to do that. Since Humane's service was being shut down, wireless features wouldn't work either—it had to be a wired connection. But the Humane Ai Pin has no obvious ports, so finding the way to plug it in wasn't immediately apparent. In a Discord channel dedicated to modifying the Pin, users quickly figured out how to uncover the hidden DIM connectors—they were covered with a moon-shaped sticker of Humane's logo—that would enable a wired connection from the Pin to a computer. The problem was the connectors were tiny, barely 1 millimeter apart, and nobody had any other cords that would fit. After trying several different connector types, Marcel and other tinkerers opted to create their own. Marcel sliced up four different USB cables looking for one with the right wires that could connect to the sensors on the Pin. He soldered them on, plugged the other end of the cord into his computer, and had them connected. But there was another problem. Humane planned to brick the device completely, meaning the operating system on the Pin would be inaccessible after it was shut down. The chip inside the device is encrypted in such a way that it would be difficult to bypass without losing the data and software that makes the Pin operate the way it does. When people like Marcel got it hooked up to their computers, they were greeted with an impassable screen. Marcel, and the community at large, were stuck. It was technically possible to hack it—the right geek can hack just about anything eventually—but getting through that encryption was a different matter. In the meantime, the community responded by organizing and sharing what they could. Brendan Brannock, a 30-year-old network engineer in Florida also working on a way to connect with his Humane Pin, put together a knowledge base document to help other people in the community start tinkering with their own devices. He found a compatible wiring device on Amazon that would connect to the Humane Pin's port and fiddled his way into building a 3D model of a base that would hold the connection in place. He shared the base model on the Discord so anyone with access to a 3D printer could make one for themselves. Connecting the cables still wasn't easy, but making the resources widely available meant more people could get cracking on the project. Brannock bought the Pin because he says he is interested in the frontiers of technology. He has self-implanted three NFC chips under his skin. ('I had a little bit of help from a couple glasses of whiskey,' he says.) They let him do things like start his car, unlock the doors on his house, and log into his password-protected accounts on a computer. The Humane Pin fit right into that spirit of DIY techno experimentation. 'The goal for any device like this is to make it do more,' Brannock says, 'Get the most out of your money.' Humane owners on the reHumane Discord called for the company to put out an OTA—an over the air update that would enable them to access the OS on the device. Humane, in its downward spiral toward dissolution, didn't make any moves to do that. (Humane did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.) The Humane Ai Pin has a built-in projector designed to show messages on your outstretched hand. Courtesy of Humane Still, the word got out, and shortly after the device was shut down on February 28, Marcel had an announcement. Somebody from Humane—he would never say who—had slipped him and a few other users access codes which would let them use Android Debug Bug tools on the Pin to get through Humane's encryption. In the Discord voice chat, Marcel broke the news by sharing his screen and turning on the camera facing his desk. He held out his hand, and across his palm the Humane Ai Pin's laser projector played the music video for Nomico's 'Bad Apple,' which has become a meme as the first video hackers put on a jailbroken device. The chat went wild. The Ai Pin was theirs. Marcel's proclamation caused some fuss, as some of the people in the community who also knew about this development were hoping to hold off a week or two longer. If they tinkered away quietly, after all the fuss had died down, perhaps invested interests like the remnants of Humane and HP would be less inclined to force another update to undo the access that had been granted. 'If we had been quiet about this,' Marcel said in the voice channel, 'it would have taken months and people would have just sold the device and just forgotten about it. This has been a very cool send away from Humane services, and hopefully a new era for these devices.' What exactly Pin users want to do with the device after they crack it open depends on who you ask. Some of them have grand ambitions, like a user in the voice channel who said, 'I keep telling them they should just make this thing shoot lasers.' Marcel just wants to figure out how the thing works, and back up the data to explore later. Brannock and 23 both want to use the Pin for precisely what it is: a smartphone replacement that doesn't require staring at a screen. Others feel the same. 'One of my favorite things about the Pin was capturing memories without a screen between us and our son,' wrote one poster on the Discord, alongside a video of his toddler's first steps, captured by the Pin. Ultimately, the people breaking these devices open really want what they felt like Humane promised them, then ultimately failed to keep alive. They want a device that can capture photos and videos, support some large language model or another, and be used to interact with the world without having to pull a phone out of their pocket. 'There's a reason we got these devices,' 23 says. 'We want to get back to where we were as a society before we had to stare at screens. A lot of us really do just want to touch grass sometimes.' After Marcel made his announcement, the Discord voice chat wound down. Except the channel had a different description now. Instead of 'The death of Ai Pin,' it now read, 'We're so back.'
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WIRED
28-02-2025
- WIRED
So You Bought a Humane Ai Pin. Here's What You Can Do Next
Humane's Ai Pin stopped working today, turning the year-old wearable—which cost millions to build—into a paperweight. Here are some alternatives if you'd rather avoid the e-waste. Photograph: Julian Chokkattu If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIRED As of today, the Humane Ai Pin is dead—less than a year since its launch. Following an acquisition by HP, Humane shut down many of the core features of the artificial intelligence-powered wearable and deleted user data, rendering it useless. Yes, some functions remain, like checking battery life (useful!), but you can't access the voice assistant. If you spent $700 on the Ai Pin, you might be wondering what you can do now. These are the risks of being an early adopter, but not getting a refund on a device bricked before the warranty is even up feels like a rip-off. Humane sold roughly 10,000 units, though daily returns were outpacing sales at one point, so there are even fewer Pins in the world. Still, that's thousands of effectively useless devices. It's a blip in the amount of e-waste generated in a year around the world—already at a crisis point—but Humane really should have offered a more responsible approach with the Ai Pin's demise. There might not be a way to get your money back, though, if you bought the pin in October of 2024 (for some reason), you might fall under the typical 120-day window to issue a chargeback with your credit card. There are some alternative options, however. Let's explore. File a Complaint With the FTC Killing a product consumers have spent money on is 'unfair and deceptive.' That's what Lucas Gutterman told WIRED via email. He's the campaign director of the Designed to Last campaign at Public Interest Research Groups (PIRG). 'When we buy something with advertised features, we should get what we pay for, and when we get ripped off the law should protect us,' Gutterman says. 'I urge everyone who purchased a Humane AI Pin to file a complaint with the FTC so they can step up and protect consumers.' Photograph: Federal Trade Commission Last year, a coalition of groups like US PIRG and Consumer Reports sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, urging the agency to address 'software tethering,' described as the use of software to control and limit the function of a device after someone buys it. The FTC subsequently conducted a study that attempted to determine software support commitments for more than 180 products, only to find that 'nearly 89 percent of the manufacturer's web pages for these products failed to disclose how long the products would receive software updates.' Humane's warranty states that the 'software and software functionality' are excluded, which is often the case on many connected products. But the study also noted that it's deceptive if manufacturers market a device's features but then fail to provide software updates to maintain those capabilities—it may violate the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act, which was enacted in 1975 to protect consumers from unfair disclaimers in warranties. 'Without transparent labeling of length of software support, or by taking away key features that were advertised, manufacturers might be violating the FTC Act by deceiving consumers," Gutterman says. "Paying for a $700 product that's supposed to work, and then being told it will suddenly stop working, is a 'harm consumers cannot avoid,' although it's one that Humane could have humanely avoided before they shipped e-waste-to-be." You can file a complaint with the FTC here. Pressure Humane to Open Up the Software Sometimes, when companies stop delivering updates to products and shut down core features, a devoted community comes to the rescue to revive or maintain capabilities of the product (or mod it to do something else). We've seen this time and time again, like with the iPod, the Game Boy, or even the Pebble smartwatch. The Humane Ai Pin may not have enough doting admirers up for the task, but this process would be made simpler if Humane released the keys to the software. Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit, says Humane should follow Pebble's lead and open the device up. Either that or we'll have to wait for someone to find a vulnerability and jailbreak the Ai Pin to write custom software for it. Humane did not respond to our request for comment. This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from. What could you do with this little wearable pin? Wiens had some ideas. 'You could just use it as a Walkie-Talkie. … A pin that talks to the internet, has a camera and microphone, sounds pretty cool. It's like a Star Trek communications pin." Dispose or Disassemble It If you want to just get rid of the thing, Wiens says to make sure you remove the battery first and then take it to an e-recycler. We also have a detailed guide on how to responsibly dispose of your electronics. Make sure you do the same for the other accessories that came in the box, though you can easily repurpose Humane's nifty charging adapter and the nice braided cable. Alternatively, you can use a service like Grid and have the company deconstruct and frame the Humane Ai Pin, so you can hang it up on the wall and remind yourself every day of the $700 you lost. I know it's a little hard to think about spending more money on this wearable, but at least it'd look cool. You could turn your Ai Pin into a 'unique framed artwork' and commemorate the $700 you lost. Photograph: Grid Grid accepts custom orders, so I asked the company if it would consider the Ai Pin. The answer is yes—for a cool $90, which includes design, materials, and shipping. 'We have carefully examined the structure of the Humane AI Pin and can confirm that we are able to provide a deconstruction and framing service for it. If anyone is interested in preserving their AI Pin as a unique framed artwork instead of letting it go to waste, they can definitely reach out to us.' You can email support@ to inquire about this custom request. Use It as a Paperweight or Keep It Safe The Ai Pin is more than up to the complex task of weighing down paper! Photograph: Julian Chokkattu It's not the heftiest thing in the world, but the Ai Pin can do the complex job of a paperweight. Or you can keep it in the box and put it away somewhere safe. In 50 years, you'll accidentally find it in the attic and then you can tell your grandkids how this little gadget was once—for a fleeting moment—supposed to be the next big thing.
