Humane AI Pin review: a $700 gamble

Humane’s AI Pin has been a highly anticipated, too-good-to-be-true device that promises to replace your smartphone, and now we’ve finally gotten to test it out. The Verge’s Editor-at-Large and Vergecast host, David Pierce, reviews AI Pin’s recognition and Q&A features, laser ink projector, but most of all, gets his patience tested. While the device lacked some fundamental software needs, the AI Pin is working towards something very, very cool. Just unsure how soon it'll come, if ever.

00:00 Intro
01:46 What is Humane AI Pin?
03:53 Hardware (weight, size, battery overheating, accessories)
06:01 Gestures, laser ink display
8:06 Camera (photos, videos, scene detection)
9:50 Responsiveness
10:22 Software (Cosmos, Tidal, messaging, reminders)
14:40 Conclusion

[TheVerge]

Does Ben Strauss owe us a Blue Yeti mic? Who makes the rules?

[stelabouras]

I love how the AI Pin can't even process requests that contain Unicode characters like the é in Beyoncé and then proceeds into revealing that é is the Unicode character U+00E9 🤣

[nicholasc]

this device encapsulates this era of AI hype vs reality.

[greggchaffin]

It’s amazing that a company, full of extremely intelligent people, were able to gather millions to create a device that won’t go anywhere.

[rachidfinge]

Waiting for Ben Strauss to appear in the comments!

[aladinyu]

User: Text my girlfriend
AI: There are multiple matching contacts, Which one do you mean?

[evindrews]

the fact that you can't set reminders or alarms on DAY 1 makes me fully expect this company to fold. That is an astounding omission.

[klf]

I don't know how you're using your phone but almost none of the scenarios you showed seemed that much better than using a phone with the assistant. This is especially true if you wear earbuds that can trigger the assistant.

On top of that, who would believe anything this thing says outside of the most trivial things. If it's anything important, you're definitely going to have to verify anything this thing tells you.

Then even on top of that the monthly fees and price of this device are insane.

[incee_netinai]

Listening to music straight from the pin and not earbuds or headphones is insane behavior

[MusicFillsTheQuiet]

This is the kind of "one-step" thing that i used the "squeeze" function of my Pixel 3 for. And despite being half a decade ago, the Pixel 3 worked better than it seems like this does.

[magic]

The thing you say about all the extra steps of a phone, Taking it out of your pocket, unlocking it, opening an app, can literally all be done in 3 seconds naturally. This pin takes more than 15 seconds when you consider pressing the button, asking the question, and waiting for a response. How is this more productive?

[TickerSymbolYOU]

Can we talk about how awesome this review is? Verge is absolutely crushing it lately with this and the Apple Vision Pro.

[TheVerge]

Expectation 12:55, Reality 09:49. Which demo stood out to you?

[trentbosnic]

Ah man, I deeply missed David Pierce video reviews. I remember his awesome Moto 360 review convinced me to buy that watch. This was excellent, please keep 'em coming David!

[shashanksaxena]

Just to inform people - the TEXAS HOLD 'EM by beyond backslash U00E9" is because U00E9 is the utf-8 encoding in computers for the character é. So technically it did know who - it just said it incorrectly.

[dallastunestropic]

Ah yes, a 700 dollar pin that is about as good as siri.

[redribbonzx]

This is so entertaining to watch. The fact that the gadget have many quirks and the host is just keep laughing and smiling ~ instead of upset. 👍

[tacojohnellenich]

Couldn’t this just be an app on the Apple Watch?

[CaseyNewton]

"I haven't talked to Ben Strauss since college" 😆

[DiogoExMarques]

Ben Strauss owes David a Blue Yeti now. Them’s the rules