I was always skeptical of this device. And now, after watching this video, I’m convinced it’s not worth it.
Even the reviewer was unimpressed by the performance. Despite its sleek design and potentially less distracting user experience compared to smartphones, the AI Pin struggled with reliability and practical functionality.
It looks like another distracting device you can get hooked on ( if it works )
People are then always on a kind of surveillance, because it is filming and recording… I foresee privacy issues…
I have been following this company for a while and am active on their Discord. There is actually more than meets the eye, and I learned a lot about AI and wearables. I’m glad you quoted the The Verge review because they were more balanced in their opinion than MKBHD who frankly just love phones, screens, and Apple devices. He’d never take the Apple Vision Pro off if it were up to him.
I found out about this Humane AI pin because I was looking for a device to use like an old-school pager after my continuous disappointment with dumbphones (spoiler: the AI pin is actually really bad at phone calls in its current iteration). The second big downfall is that large language models are not capable currently (and maybe never will be) to understand intention and context. The AI pin relies on voice commands and we see from users that it often misunderstands. There is another popular device called the Rabbit R1, which is device with a screen to put in your pocket, which has a similar aim: through voice commands do stuff. It will have the same faults.
Even though the pin does not work well, yet, there are some solid ideas:
Note taking while on the go, like an old dictaphone. Not only can you take notes, but you can also ask the AI to process them, e.g. merging multiple voice notes into a shopping list. Ai-powered voice notes and meeting transcriptions are a major use case and there are plenty of apps and even devices out there to do exactly that, e.g. the Limitless Pendant or the Plaud Note.
Voice notes can lead the way to ephemeral apps. I wrote an article last year how I would wish an AI assistant could replace my Nara baby app.
In contrast to many other devices, the AI pin cannot eavesdrop. In order for it to record a video or listen to a voice command, you need to push the button, even though it is not always practical to do so. There is no wake word, and while listening or filming the light is on.
Searching the internet while on the go. A lot of people, including me, like to continuously search something because of necessity or curiosity. I then take out my smartphone and fall in a rabbit hole of distractions. It’d be very useful to just hear a response to a question and get on with it. However, this kind of ‘instant satisfaction’ could also get addictive. I’m going to try to carry a notebook and write all my questions down. See how many I will really research?
About this searching the internet: the search engine revolution is surely the best impact the large language models have had. If you haven’t yet, try out Perplexity.ai. You can ask it any question and it will search the web and summarize an answer for you, including sources so you can verify if needed. Kagi.com is a more traditional search engine which deprioritizes webpages with ads but can also respond to questions in the same fashion, as well as summarize individual webpages. These tools saved me so much time and distraction. I don’t need to open webpages anymore and read them, click through the cookie notices and the ads etc. I just get straight up answers. This could potentially change the business model of websites, because advertising and low-quality content is simply bypassed. Perplexity is such a nice, lightweight and simple app it would be a very good fit for the Mudita Kompakt! You don’t need to necessarily support a browser, the answer within the app suffices. The search query is saved to your profile so you can dive further on desktop.
Action cam functionality: probably one of my favorite use cases of the pin: take a photo or make a videoclip, handsfree, from the POV perspective. I bought an Insta360 Go action cam especially for that purpose, and I barely take my phone out anymore for photos or videos (except portraits or shallow dof, for those I use a mirrorless). I wrote an article about that on Reddit.
I live in Europe so the pin is not available for me. In its current state I wouldn’t throw money at it, anyway. By the time it arrives here, either the device will have solved its problems, or Humane went bankrupt. The form factor will catch on, though. But maybe I’ll buy a Mudita Kompakt instead?
