I didn’t want to spend too much time on this thing, but I feel like we can all use a good laugh at a stupid product hyped only by the tech media. The Verge reviewed the Humane AI pin, and entirely predictably, it’s a complete and utter trashfire.
But until all of that happens, and until the whole AI universe gets better, faster, and more functional, the AI Pin isn’t going to feel remotely close to being done. It’s a beta test, a prototype, a proof of concept that maybe someday there might be a killer device that does all of these things. I know with absolute certainty that the AI Pin is not that device. It’s not worth $700, or $24 a month, or all the time and energy and frustration that using it requires. It’s an exciting idea and an infuriating product.
AI gadgets might one day be great. But this isn’t that day, and the AI Pin isn’t that product. I’ll take my phone back now, thanks.
David Pierce at The Verge
It takes dozens of seconds to reply to any query, the battery is severely lacking, the answers you get are mostly wrong or useless, sending text messages is effectively broken, and tons of promised features don’t work because they’re not implemented. In another video review, MrMobile also shows the device overheating all the time, a problem that’s common to all of the devices. I don’t think trashfire is harsh enough to describe this junk.
Meanwhile I‘m using a sily iPhone 15 Pro with an action button that can be dedicated to the ChatGPT voice conversation shortcut.
Why should I buy yet another device?
Though yes, having that feature available immediatly on an independent Apple Watch would be something…
(now replace iPhone with smartphone and Apple Watch with smartwatch and you see the luxury digital life we live)
It would have been so much cooler if it looked like this…
https://shop.startrek.com/products/star-trek-the-next-generation-bluetooth-communicator-badge-1
Haha.
I know a lot of people are going to put down these AI gadgets as fads and gimmicks, because many/most of them are. But I still feel that as consumers we are looking at AI through one lens when it’s largest impact isn’t going to be in consumer gadgets at all. It’s going to be businesses turning to AI to tackle their employee costs…
https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/11/business/california-minimum-wage-fast-food-kiosks/index.html
The uptake isn’t going to be a temporary fad or bubble as many pundits claim, There are long term incentives to replace employees and as AI becomes more capable and less expensive, the financial pressure to automate more jobs will only increase and it could become economically impossible to go back. Even if it’s not entirely there yet, displacing us is the real future of AI.
It’s okay as the first device of its kind. Yeah, it’s not that great, but neither was the first Motorola mobile phone. I am fully expecting these kind of devices getting better in 15-25 years (about the time it took for mobile phones to get decent).