this is the Humane AI pin it's been
blowing up the internet over the last
few months with the combined
intelligence of sophisticated AI plus
the entire internet all being brought to
you in a way that you can still be
completely present in a moment and not
bogged down by the hassle of working
around intrusive addictive phone
applications and I just went Hands-On
with it I spent about 4 hours using it
and talking to the CEO Iman and I don't
think I've ever wanted to love a piece
of technology so much and yet still be
unable to who's Mr who's the from
YouTube finding YouTube video AR man
also known as MOS is a popular YouTuber
with a focus on technology making him
years old so here's how it works it
Clips onto your clothing it stays there
on standby most of the time and then
only when you decide that you want to
engage with it do you place your finger
on this touchpad and you speak for
example when do you think humans will
settle on the moon humans are are
expected to return to the Moon in 2024
and have the first families on the Moon
by 2084 okay so that's pretty cool I
guess it can do music in quite an
intelligent way could you play me some
of Mozart's biggest hits and then this
is
[Music]
volume but those are still basic
requests the benefit of this being an AI
powered assistant is that you can also
do things like look at this food and
tell me what it is it's a white
cardboard box with a clear plastic lid
the box contains Fried Chicken nugets do
you want to see the coolest party trick
of the century though well bring your
hand in front the bakedin camera will
see that hand and a laser projector
housed inside the pin will fire out your
display onto it so this is my home menu
the way the controls work it's rotate
your hands to select something so if I
hover over my home widgets for example
and then pinch which is to click I can
cycle between them the pin also has a
depth sensor so as I move my hand back
it knows that and it can show you a
contextual quite literally behind the
scenes menu based on what you're doing
right now so if I've just taken a photo
for example and I want to preview that
photo raise your hand you'll see the
photo push the hand back and it will
give you the menu that lets you pick
what you want to do with that photo like
share or delete it and then as soon as
you're done with something you either
clench to go back home or you just put
your hand down the pin will know and it
will stop the projection almost
immediately
so is it good well I'm really sorry to
say this cuz Iman the CEO he was so nice
in person and he was a great host to us
but no I don't think so this is a really
interesting category and I have ideas
for how this could be something that is
pretty great but as of right now the
Humane pin is an incredibly poor
proposition just before I get into that
though I do want to give credit where
credit's due there are a few things
about this that are spoton and they do
make you realize the potential for
starters I think they have absolutely
nailed the hardware so long as you
decide that you're okay with wearing a
chest pin then you probably won't find a
better one it's way smaller and lighter
than I was expecting and it's got three
different kinds of backings which go on
the inside of your clothing and
magnetically attach one is a super
lightweight latch for delicate clothing
so it doesn't tug much one is the
standard battery booster which is a bit
thicker and also wirelessly charges the
Humane pin's internal battery and then
you have the most bulky which is the
clip that can manually fasten around
your clothing and I got to say my entire
First Impressions with this thing before
I turned the thing on were great the
construction feels topnotch with every
pin being carved out of a solid block of
aluminium and the charging case has a
really sturdy hinge with no sign of
flexing I think it looks pretty it
doesn't have any big garish logos it's
quite sleek and futuristic and this
trust light that indicates what it's
doing at any moment for you and also I
guess for other people around you is
super seamlessly integrated the magnets
are really strong I even tried running
around with it I mean yeah it does flop
around a bit if you're wearing a loose
t-shirt but I was not at all worried
that it was going to fall and here's the
final touch that I do think is quite
smart the base of the pen is one
continuous touchpad so while you don't
have a traditional smartphone screen you
do have some of that physical touch
experience that you've built up all that
muscle memory for so you can use this
for example to swipe up and increase
your volume or double tap to take a
photo or hold down with two fingers to
enter interpreter mode which I'll get to
in a bit but the best part of it is it
means there are no wake words you're not
having to start each interaction with
hey Humane and that's really really
great and there were moments with it
where I saw what it could be I asked it
what's this tree in front of me and it
told me it's a Japanese maple and there
was something incredibly uniquely
satisfying about gaining that Insight
without needing to be interrupted from
the moment with my phone it felt like a
cheat code because let's face it as soon
as your phone gets involved that becomes
your attention anytime you take a photo
on your phone you are entirely focused
on getting the framing just right
anytime you want to look something up
you're actually looking down at your
hand instead of experiencing or another
example was the one time that we used
The Interpreter translation feature and
it actually worked
well hello Imron it is a pleasure to
meet you the point is I see it I see the
vision and I see small twinges of
something magical but when you actually
boil it down to the practicality of
using this and wearing this every single
day I can't see a single angle from
which it makes sense I mean the first
thing is the price this is a $700 Gadget
and $700 $ as a oneoff is maybe just
about digestible and you do get
everything you need to use it they also
throw in two of the battery boosters in
the box which between them is enough
battery for a full day of use but here's
the problem very little of the AI
processing is being done on the device
so it needs an internet connection and
so because it needs an internet
connection it's not just that it
basically does nothing when you're out
in the middle of nowhere but also it
needs its own entirely separate data
plan so it's a 700 $ pin plus a $24 a
month subscription on top of that plus
taxes and fees and yeah that $24 does
also include unlimited AI requests on
top of that data but $24 a month is I
mean that's two times what I'm paying
for my phone contract if you want to go
abroad and carry on using the pin which
is a big part of its appeal because of
this whole translation feature there's
an extra fee on top of that and the
worst part of it cuz I specifically
asked about this the minute that you
stop paying that monthly fee the device
stops function
so let's say that I use this for 2 years
where I've paid $700 for the device $600
for the subscription $200 in extra taxes
another $100 for roaming fees and just
to finish it all off another $100 for
the clip and the latch as they don't
come with it even after $1,700 of
investment into this product as soon as
I stop paying my subscription cuz I mean
would you plan to pay it for the rest of
your life probably not but at that point
Humane is basically saying that your PIN
becomes a paperweight so fine it's very
expensive but if its capability matches
that then maybe it's justifiable well
what Imran the founder was saying to me
is that the pin has the ability to run
not just one but many of the top current
AI models so like GPT 4 for example
which is a very powerful AI that does
usually require its own paid
subscription for youus it has that on
the go all the time which is definitely
not to be sniffed at so one of the
things that he was saying he used it for
is when he's driving his phone will be
in his pocket his Focus will be on the
road but he has access to the entire
internet of knowledge so he'll just
decide I want to learn something about
sleep habits today for example and this
pin can bring that knowledge in
summarize it and speak it to you and
this is actually the first moment where
I thought oh that's interesting when
Risha my fiance does any kind of long
drive she often spends a good half an
hour beforehand trying to find a good
podcast to listen to during it and even
then they'll often Veer off topic or not
be exactly what she was hoping for but
this the world's information curated
exactly based on what you're asking to
hear in any given moment well that could
solve it plus the AI pin does understand
the flow of a conversation this isn't
like old school Siri where you're just
reintroducing the topic every single
time you bark a new command at
it you can talk in a very human
conversational way and it talks back so
my head started spinning with the
possibilities this idea of a personal
teacher wherever you want them but then
I tried it hey I'm really struggling
with sleep recently uh I'm only getting
5 hours and I keep waking up in the
night what should I try and
[Music]
do analyzing sleep
advice to improve Sleep Quality you can
try the following be consistent with
your sleep schedule ensure your bedroom
is quiet dark and at a comfortable
temperature remove electronic devices
from the bedroom avoid large meals
caffeine and alcohol before bedtime what
I think it lacks is that conversational
tone that makes it easy to understand
and follow you know when you're
listening to a podcast and it's a human
speaking with human intonation yeah the
fact that it doesn't have that makes it
hard for me yes so we're working on some
of that at the moment where the
conversational piece we're looking at um
opening up the microphone for um follow
on questions like that yeah so the
bubble burst pretty quickly not only is
it much harder to understand than real
person the AI doesn't have that natural
intonation and it's only without that
that you realize how important that it
is but it also just takes ages and this
was not a one-off everything on the pin
seems to take time call
[Music]
Aaron is it oh there you go it's only
having experienced that myself that I
realized why in the comp's promotional
material they're filling in all the
silences by talking make it sounds like
jenz and what's cool is you can make it
more formal or casual or even do fun
things Oliver how's it going because if
they didn't fill in those silences it
would be awkward as hell now it's tough
to say at this point why everything
takes so long like even simple things
like sending a text or a call those
should be instant offline responses but
they're far from it so either this is
just a really slow device or the voice
processing itself also needs to be done
online or this is just the device
checking in online each time you ask at
something just to make sure that you're
still paying the monthly fee whatever
the reason it is a big source of
friction could you give me a synonym for
the word great and a sub to the channel
would
be finding
synonyms synonyms for the word great
include fantastic marvelous talented
tremendous and wonderful we'll go for
Marvel
if human intonation and speed were the
only issues though I'd be pretty happy
to give Ain the benefit of the doubt
because longer term those are fixable
things but I think the real problem with
this product it it runs much deeper than
that for starters it hallucinates which
has become this term to describe how AI
can present false information as if it's
a fact so for example one of the
advertised features is you hold a food
in front of you and it tells you what is
in it like how much sugar or how many
grams of protein but see when I asked it
how many chicken nuggets there are in a
20 chicken nugget share boox it said
without a hint of caution the box
contains fried chicken nuggets there are
14 chicken nuggets in the
Box interesting
14 well I think it's cuz it can only see
14 yeah so how on Earth will you ever be
able to trust a device's nutritional
recommendations if it doesn't even know
how much of that food there is I mean I
talked to Imran about this and he said
well it's not a medical device and the
feature is kind of in beta and that's
all fair enough but then what it is is
an advertised feature either it needs to
get much much better very quickly which
I don't think is going to happen because
of the natural limitations of what this
thing can see or it needs to make you
more aware of its limitations so that
you know you shouldn't be taking what it
says at face value the idea in theory of
let's say liking the look of this chair
and for the PIN to be able to not just
tell you what it is but also save the
answer to your notes is appealing but
when you actually try and do that you
realize what the limitations of this
form factor are like you can't see
exactly what it's seeing so I asked this
exact question to it about the chair and
it gave me a recommendation but then I
later realized that the recommendation
it gave me was a different chair in the
room and that's because when it gives
you an answer you have no way of
affirming that it's the correct answer
unlike when you do the same thing using
Google lens on your phone where you can
make sure that you're capturing the
right chair and then you can physically
check that it has identified correctly
one thing that Imran talked about was
the incoming AB to buy things using this
but given that there's no real screen
here would you want to buy things on
this like what if I meant to order two
of something but the AI pin mishears me
and takes that as 20 what if it
misunderstands the size or the color of
what you're wanting and actually orders
an alternative variant there is so much
that could go wrong that you'd really
want to see an entire purchase page with
all the info and you can only do that on
your phone but then also you have to
talk to it because there is no physical
screen to type on your key input method
has to default to speech and there are a
lot of times I can think of where I
would not want to do that like what if
you're in an art gallery or a library or
more commonly for people a meeting what
if you're texting with your partner and
you don't want to broadcast your
intimate conversations any search
request that might be remotely private
you either tell the world or you'll have
to get out your phone anyway and you
have the same problem in alloud
environment like a concert or a busy
train I can tell you for a fact that in
the London Underground this will not be
able to hear me clearly unless I shout
so now it is starting to become a pretty
big problem if the fact that the pin
will cost you just as much as a topend
flagship smartphone wasn't enough can
you see this growing number of further
Hoops that you still have to jump
through like having a permanent required
internet connection the sheer time lag
between when you ask it to do something
and it actually doing that thing that
full 5 to 10c period where you're unsure
whether it's thinking or it's failed the
answer to which is a pretty even 50/50
split and then the further restriction
that comes from there being many
different environments in which you
either can't or you won't want to use it
and that is not even talking about what
I think is the biggest limiting factor
the app situation it's pretty clear that
one of the key pitures of this AI pin is
the ability to lead this appless
lifestyle to not be a slave to all these
apps that are fighting for your
attention and to kind of bring all of
these separate previously siloed
functionalities into one seamless
experience and I really do want to say I
respect the vision I love the idea of
being completely connected whilst also
not needing to bend over so that meta
can track my behaviors and Target ads at
me accordingly so salute for trying but
given how entrenched we already are in
these applications I think this Vision
only works if this device can still on
some level still communicate with those
apps like if I can say to it hey send a
WhatsApp message that says this or post
a tweet that says this but it can't do
that when you message someone it's not a
WhatsApp it's not an iMessage it's just
a straight SMS message when you take a
photo you know I was saying that when
you move your hand back it gives you
this option to share that photo yeah
well since there's no apple airdrop and
there's no Android Quick Share the only
way to actually share it is to SMS that
person a link to be able to download it
like imagine after a party you know when
people say oh can you send us the photos
you took and then you actually send them
an SMS link for them to be able to
download those photos one photo at a
time at the Humane web Center they're
going to think you're some sort of time
traveler and not in a good way oh yeah
so the Humane web Center this is where
all the stuff on your AI pin gets backed
up to every time that it's docked and
it's on Wi-Fi and in a way this is kind
of cool the company's saying that you
get unlimited storage as part of your
subscription cost and this web Center is
one place where all of your photos your
videos your notes all the requests that
you've asked it for it all comes
together but does that also defeat the
entire purpose like okay if the goal of
the pin is for you to rely Less on apps
but at the same time they're telling you
that it's not not designed to replace
your phone then you're still going to be
using all your phone apps your Google
Drives your Evernotes and you're still
going to need to keep paying those
subscriptions but now you have a whole
extra Suite of Humane apps that your
stuff is further scattered across if
this pin came out before the first smart
phone then who knows maybe it could have
set the precedent for a new type of
computer with a new way of working but
we are in a world now that is built
around the smartphone and given that I
do not see a world where a smart device
that doesn't actually connect in with
any of your existing smart devices is
useful as it stands it seems like the
only smartphone Style app that currently
works on the pin is tidal for music and
I can see why it's so limited because I
mean both on the developer end because
there's very little incentive to create
apps for a platform in which you cannot
easily advertise and you cannot easily
convert people to your other services
but also for the user I mean think about
the apps you use how many of them would
actually be useful if you didn't have a
screen like you wouldn't want shopping
apps you'd Miss so much of the content
TT of what you're looking at like when
you're on Amazon for example you need to
see how many reviews there are you need
to see what those reviews say maybe scan
a few of them you want to be able to see
the options for delivery date and
importantly if you're being charged to
get it faster by losing almost your
entire sense of sight you lose 90% of
the information that you require to do
useful things and sure you can ask the
PIN to dictate the entire web page but
that would be exhausting and so much
slower the company's currently working
on Google Calendar integration so you'll
be able to ask your PIN who's in my next
meeting what time does it start how long
does it go on for but if you actually
want a clear instant picture of not just
your next meeting but your entire day
the app on your phone can give you
everything together in seconds the same
is true for all your social media apps
it's true for any kind of banking it's
true for any form of visual media and
the list goes on and just to clarify yes
you do have a display of sorts here this
whole laser thing but the inherent
nature of what it is it naturally limits
what it can do it's monochrome it's
quite low resol ution and also it's not
that bright to the point where Outdoors
it's really hard to see and the official
advice is actually to just use your
other hand to cup it cool thanks and
actually now we really think about it is
it even fair to say this counts as hands
free like yes technically there is
nothing in my hands but at the same time
my hands are definitely not free
actually quite the opposite the laser
does not re aim itself to wherever your
hand is there is a specific spot where
it fires you need to hold your hand
there and you need to keep it as flat as
possible your hand is basically your
projector screen so the more creased you
keep it the worse your picture quality
is going to be I genuinely feel like
doing this for 5 minutes is actually
ironically much less comfortable than
just holding your phone because you can
hold your phone in any position you can
support it on your lap or on a table and
you can just keep moving it and yeah the
Humane pin does have a surprising number
of features considering there is no
physical Hardware like being able to
react to messages with emoji but then at
that point where you're holding your
hand out you're scrolling around and
you're tapping multiple times surely
there comes a point where it will
actually just be faster to take your
phone out and do it there and that
brings me on to the gestures you know
things like rolling your hand around I
totally believe that they are things
that you will get used to like I don't
think it's fair to say that they're just
not good after having used them once and
also I totally get that you're not going
to be using your hand screen as much as
you would be using your phone screen but
what you can't deny is that the total
amount of effort required to per perform
any given action is just higher with the
pin like if you think about what it
takes to hover over something with your
phone is this if you think about what it
takes to hover over something on the
Humane pin it's this if you think about
what it takes to click something it's
that if you think about what it takes to
click something over here it's that if
you think about what it takes to go home
one swipe if you think about what it
takes to go home it's a full clench now
why do I keep comparing it to the phone
anyways we've already established that
it's designed to be a separate device
that isn't replacing a phone well
because I don't think I've ever seen
more overlap in capability between two
separate categories of computer cuz look
this is an Android phone the Humane AI
pin at its very core is also running
Android this phone has a Qualcomm
chipset on the inside the Humane pin
also has a Calcom chip on the inside
they didn't exactly say which but based
on the size of this thing and the tiny
batteries I'd say it's very likely to
not be close to the power of your
phone's chip this is trying to be your
camera but your phone already has a
camera which doesn't have the
limitations of the pins like only having
one angle being limited to 13 megapixel
and only being able to take 15c 1080p
videos and then to top the whole thing
off all the features every single thing
that the Humane AI pin can currently do
and everything that it will ever be able
to do all the translation features all
the AI features and the ability to ask
it questions and it remember stuff all
the vision things like how they demoed
that you can put a Walkman in front of
it and ask it what year it was made you
can put a shoe in front of it and ask it
who designed it your smartphone can also
do all of it because fundamentally the
Humane pin is just phone Hardware with a
fancy new way to interact with it to try
and counter the fact that there is no
physical display the one and the only
advantage of it what you're essentially
paying that additional $700 plus monthly
subscription and having to juggle
battery boosters and keep yet another
device charged up for is that your
Humane AI pin sits on your chest your
phone does not it's just the fact that
it's there now here's how it would make
a lot more sense to me you're already
paying every month for a data plan on
your phone right you've already paid a
big chunk of upfront cash for the
massive processing power on your phone
so surely surely a much more useful pin
would be a pin that instead of
duplicating all of that but just doing
it worse can connect to your phone and
use what you already have I mean that's
exactly how SmartWatches already work
and it would mean the pin would be way
cheaper its subscription cost would be
minimal because you'd only need to pay
for the AI side of things and not the
data again and all your stuff is in one
place like when you take a photo on your
PIN you can rest easy knowing that it'll
appear in your phone album and it'll
sync with your iCloud or whatever and it
could actually be more capable because
it would be able to take advantage of
the greater power and the apps that most
likely any flagship phone released in
the last 2 to 3 years already has now I
wouldn't go as far as to say that this
type of product will have no use for
anyone ever and I'm quite happy to try
using it in the long term to see if that
changes my mind but this is just me out
here telling you that I'm not hopeful
unless of course Google comes in and
acquires the company and then integrates
them properly into Android that might be
interesting