How humane the Ai Pin is
Paresh Dave of the Humane Ai Pin Projector for Gadget Lab and his Expectations for the Next Generation of Mobile Devices
Humane’s device, called the Ai Pin, can take photos and send texts, uses a laser to project a visual interface onto a person’s palm, and comes with a virtual assistant that can be as sharp as ChatGPT. By always being prepared to use the internet and use a mobile device, it’s supposed to make sure dependence is quashed.
The device, as we revealed yesterday, is a $699 wearable in two parts: a square device and a battery pack that magnetically attaches to your clothes or other surfaces. The $24 monthly fee for a Humane subscription lets you keep your phone number and data coverage with T-Mobile. Preorders for the device will start on November 16th, according to the company.
The AI Pin is powered by a Snapdragon processor — though it’s not clear which one — and you control it with a combination of voice control, a camera, gestures, and a small built-in projector. The Pin itself weighs about 34 grams, and the “battery booster” adds another 20. After a software update, the camera will take 13-megapixel photos as well as video.
It is not recording or listening for a wake word unlike a device like the rewind pendant. The Pin blinks to let you know that it is gathering data, and you have to manually invoke the device by tapping and dragging on the touchpad.
A lot of our attention goes to phones, but they are convenient and powerful. How much of your day do you spend just holding your phone, staring at the screen? Humane, a company founded by a pair of ex-Apple employees, wants to squash the tyranny of the touchscreen. The company has developed a tiny device that magnetically pins to your clothing, where it can replicate a phone’s core functions like answering calls, sending messages, and translating speech. It uses voice controls, touch controls, and a camera to sense the wearer’s intentions, and it crafts answers using machine intelligence and displays them on your hand using a tiny projector. It’s a weird and audacious device that Humane hopes will free its customers from having to carry their phones everywhere.
This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED senior writer Paresh Dave joins us to talk about his hands-off experience with the Humane Ai Pin and the future phone alternatives.
GadgetLab and the Fate of the Doomsday Mechanics (and the Physics of the Bardolinsky Relics)
Kim’s Convenience was recommended by Paresh. Lauren recommends the biography of Robert Oppenheimer, American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. Mike recommends the new reissue of the Buddha Machine music box from FM3.
Paresh Dave can be found on social media @peard33. Lauren is the same as Lauren Goode. Michael Calore is on the official feed of the fight. It would be great to have the main hotline atGadgetLab. The show is being done by Boone Ashworth. Our theme music is by Solar Keys.
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A Los Alamos cop’s odd sight outside a cell phone? Humane’s pin, the pixelated smartphone, and the next-generation connected cell phone
For months, an odd sight has intrigued a San Francisco cop regularly stationed outside the downtown offices of the startup Humane. The small, square device that employees have out of its door is not like the officer’s body-worn camera. “Been wondering what those are,” the officer said when WIRED visited the company last week.
The Pin is one of the first of many wearable devices expected to launch in coming months and years that are built around the kind of ChatGPT-like AI services now used by over 100 million people each week. Famed Apple designer Jony Ive is reportedly among the competition.
It’s also too early to tell whether Humane’s hope that the Pin can help people to live more in the moment will prove true, or whether it will simply provide a new way to be unhealthily obsessed with technology.
When Bongiorno and her husband founded Humane, they established strict parameters for their product. It needed to be a piece of electronics connected directly to the cell network, and transparent about recording when it’s convenient. The whole package needs to be affordable. Bongiorno says that that really set the tone for where we are today.
