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Humane AI Pin review: not even close

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Re: Humane AI Pin review: not even close

#61
post #11

What I don't understand is, this device has been in development since 2018. Obviously the founders didn't intend it to be a ChatGPT wrapper many years before ChatGPT existed. So what was the original vision, and what made them do a half-assed last minute pivot and redo the whole thing right before launch?

Maybe to be accessory to your phone, reduce screentime etc.

I don't get the screentime argument. The way to reduce screentime is to move people off Instagram/TikTok to platforms that aren't optimising for engagement as much, not to make a fancy mini phone for booking Ubers and checking when my flights are, which constitutes almost no phone usage at scale.

Re: Humane AI Pin review: not even close

#62

This and the Rabbit R1 are both trying to reduce the amount we use our phones, but I think this presents a fundamental misunderstanding of the jobs to be done on phones and how we actually use them. There are broadly two use-cases of phones: content consumption, and utility. The former sucks time to increase "engagement" and has a bunch of social issues around it, the latter does not. Both of these devices are trying…

I think there's something in this. Watching the video made me realise that my main irritations with my phone are born of the bit where I have to navigate through a minefield of distrations to add an item to my todo list, or check my calendar, or send a text message. All the "what bridge am I looking at stuff" is cute but feels like solving a problem I never really encounter. Anyway, I'm guess I'm going to try and use Siri more, ubnlock my phone less.

Re: Humane AI Pin review: not even close

#63
post #11

What I don't understand is, this device has been in development since 2018. Obviously the founders didn't intend it to be a ChatGPT wrapper many years before ChatGPT existed. So what was the original vision, and what made them do a half-assed last minute pivot and redo the whole thing right before launch?

Voice assistants long predate ChatGPT, so it was probably designed to use (possibly a custom, in-house) one of those, but then GPT-4 (and probably 3.5 below it) probably blew away whatever they were working on, and they switched.

Re: Humane AI Pin review: not even close

#65
post #4

This is honestly kinda glorious, a company that seems to want to use AI as every other word to get as many investors to give them money as possible shoehorns AI with a reputation for hallucination into an expensive device that isn't even close to the promise if what it could do. That just screams a culmination of the last couple of years of "AI" and I am kinda loving that this happened. Maybe, just maybe, Investors w…

>Am I being too hopeful?

I hope not but I would guess yes. It's insane to me that anyone even bought this thing. Their marketing couldn't even show it in a positive light. It got things wrong, it seemed pretty useless, and the whole presentation that I watched felt like they were being held captive and forced to do things. The thing is connected to T-Mob which, in my mind, is one of the worse networks out there. AND it's $700.

But they sold some. Why would people buy it? Who looked at any of that and thought "YES! Let's throw $700 away for this poorly developed toy?!"

Re: Humane AI Pin review: not even close

#66
post #55
post #3

I suspect anyone who works in tech is completely unsurprised. Sure, the tech exists to make this thing possible, but it requires an Apple-sized company to execute on it, and even then it’s utility would be doubtful There’s been a lot of pulling back on smart speakers because they’re not quite where they need to be - and this promised far far more than a smart speaker from a tiny new company. The question is: did they…

Not even an Apple-sized company will be able to successfully execute on it if the customer doesn't want the device to begin with. Look at VR headsets, for example. All the biggest tech behemoths burning through billions haven't been able to make the device category work, simply because no one wants to sit at home with a bulky headset strapped to their head shut off from their family and the outside world. Similarly a…

The purpose of headsets in the commercial product category is an attempt to subsidize development of military visors. the worlds largest customer, the federal government, definitely wants this.

Re: Humane AI Pin review: not even close

#67
post #39
post #13

A 4/10 is way too high for this review, when the conclusion is it barely ever works and instead "just buy an Apple watch".

It's sleek and shiny. It powers on. The battery lasts. It has some unique input/output mechanisms. They have been able to solve manufacturing challenges at scale. All that should be more than enough to get it to a 4. I can imagine significantly worse devices deserving a 1 or 2.

a product that doesnt work but looks cool gets a 4? this is part of the problem. there isnt much more left to be worse

Re: Humane AI Pin review: not even close

#68
post #4

This is honestly kinda glorious, a company that seems to want to use AI as every other word to get as many investors to give them money as possible shoehorns AI with a reputation for hallucination into an expensive device that isn't even close to the promise if what it could do. That just screams a culmination of the last couple of years of "AI" and I am kinda loving that this happened. Maybe, just maybe, Investors w…

>Am I being too hopeful? I hope not but I would guess yes. It's insane to me that anyone even bought this thing. Their marketing couldn't even show it in a positive light. It got things wrong, it seemed pretty useless, and the whole presentation that I watched felt like they were being held captive and forced to do things. The thing is connected to T-Mob which, in my mind, is one of the worse networks out there. AND…

> I hope not but I would guess yes.

I unfortunately kinda agree, this alone likely won't do anything. But given the high likelihood of more than a few of these projects getting a ton of money coming out and burning in a similar way.

I think it will eventually happen after getting a few bad products.

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