Humane Inc., a startup founded by former Apple executives, has announced the name of its inaugural device “Ai Pin“, and confirmed that it is scheduled for release later this year. Established in 2017, the company emerged from stealth mode in 2021, providing a glimpse of the capabilities of its device earlier this year. However, specific details regarding the final appearance of the gadget are still unknown.
Sixteen years ago, Imran Chaudhri and his now-wife, Bethany Bongiorno, served as executives at Apple when Steve Jobs unveiled the groundbreaking iPhone, a device that revolutionized the smartphone industry. Today, the earliest models of these phones are considered valuable artifacts, with prices reaching up to $100,000, owing to their iconic design, technological advancements, and historical significance.
Through their venture, Humane, Chaudhri and Bongiorno aspire to render the iPhone and other conventional smartphones obsolete, instead envisioning a new world driven by artificial intelligence. In this visionary realm, human interaction with technology transcends traditional screen-based interfaces. Humane aims to pioneer this innovative landscape by developing cutting-edge devices that reimagine the way we engage with technology.
Humane Ai Pin
The world caught glimpses of such a future at this year’s TED Talk in April, where Chaudhri showcased how the technology could work. In his talk, Chaudhari spoke about the ‘Disappearing Computer’ and how Humane was working toward it.
Apart from the fact that the technology was powered by a piece of equipment in his chest pocket, we had no further details of the device. In the run-up to the likely launch of the device later this year, the company has now revealed that it calls it the Humane Ai Pin.
Knowns and unknowns about the Ai Pin
Besides revealing the name of its first gadget, Humane has also shown that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon family of chips will power it, the one’s that power smartphones and mixed-reality devices these days. The technology under the hood is the same, so Humane is changing how you interact with it.
To do so, it relies on voice-based control and the ability of the device to understand your instructions, act upon them and deliver audio or visual responses to them. It is hardly a surprise then that the company is teaming up with OpenAI, and both Sam Altman and Microsoft have invested in the company, Reuters reported.
Nevertheless, there are many more unknowns about the Ai Pin than we know. For instance, why is the Humane using Ai, not AI, in the nomenclature? The Ai Pin uses a range of sensors to interact with the environment, but we have only seen a few of them in action during the TED talk. What else can it do that could make screen-based phones obsolete?
Humane’s intention to take us away from our screens is honest and heartwarming. But how the company plans to address privacy issues arising from a projector or a computer voice reading out messages aloud in public remains to be seen.
Also, there is the issue of the price of the final device and its capabilities if it wants to compete with the smartphone of today. Guess, Humane will slowly reveal this information in the coming months, and we will cover it.
For those, who want to know how to become early adopters of the device, there is a waitlist.
