Former Apple designers Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno last week officially launched the Humane Ai Pin they’re positioning as a smartphone replacement. The $700 wearable magnetically attaches to clothing. A $24 per month T-Mobile data subscription is required for connectivity. Described as “a download device and software platform built from the ground up for AI,” it’s got an ultra-wide RGB camera, depth sensors and motion sensors, and a speaker that creates “a bubble of sound” that can be loud or soft. Preorders for the Ai Pin begin November 16, with shipments scheduled to begin in early 2024.

The Ai Pin allows users “to make calls, send texts and look up information through voice controls,” writes CNBC, adding that “it also has a laser display, turning your palm into a mini screen that can show the time, date or what’s nearby.”

“We were able to pack a lot of technology into something really small,” Chaudhri, president and chairman, said in a launch video that details a “really fast” Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset.

“There are no wake words so it’s not always listening or always recording,” Chaudhri says, adding that “it doesn’t do anything until you engage with it, and your engagement comes through your voice, touch, gesture or the laser ink display.”

The device consists of two sections, the computer and a battery booster that continually powers a smaller battery inside the main computer. The booster can be hot-swapped, achieving “a perpetual power system that allows you to use the Ai Pin as long as you want,” CEO Bongiorno explains in the video.

The Ai Pin can do things like provide language translation in real time, and summarize a user’s daily calendar, email messages or things like dietary intake. Customers can request “play songs from movie soundtracks” with Tidal providing for-fee music subscription services.

Questions are answered by LLM chatbots that can be accessed via the Internet rather than requiring downloaded apps, CNBC explains, noting “Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, and other companies are contributing AI services.” Since forming in 2017, Humane has raised more than $200 million from investors including Microsoft, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Tiger Global.

Wired calls the Ai Pin “the world’s first contextual computer,” and says it’s “intended to be less invasive, though just as capable” as smart glasses, “and something people can comfortably wear all day without ruining their hairdo.”

“We want to have powerful compute with us at all times,” Chaudhri said. The tech power duo first debuted Humane’s Ai Pin last month at Paris Fashion Week.

Related:
Can AI and Lasers Cure Our Smartphone Addiction?, The New York Times, 11/9/23