Humane Ai Pin

The technology industry is betting on AI to create alternatives to the iPhone. But testing one high-profile attempt — the Humane Ai Pin — reveals that smartphones aren’t going anywhere.

The Humane AI pin is... bad. Almost no one should buy it. Yet.

If there’s a lesson here, though, it’s that rather than splurging on a new device that promises to fix our problems we may be better off forcing ourselves to use the ones we have more judiciously.

Hands on: I want to take off the AI Pin. It's not as useful as my watch and not as fun as Meta's glasses. It's also in a strange new place that's not as easy to wear, and I feel concerned about it when I'm outside. Will it fall off? Will rain damage it? (It's not listed as being water resistant.) Will someone steal this expensive thing by grabbing it off my shirt?

Viewed for what it is, the Ai Pin is the textbook definition of a first-generation product. Bongiorno and Chaudhri repeatedly referred to it as a “V1” (version 1.0) model. Every product starts as a first-gen device, usually with compromises that get fixed and improved in subsequent releases. The Mac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple Vision Pro — all of these iconic Apple products were constrained in their capabilities at launch.