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Humane - Conversational AI

Humane and its AI Pin: A $700 Dream That Died Screaming

Humane’s $700 AI Pin flops—HP buys the wreck for $116M. Feb 19, 2025 tale of hype, bugs, and a dead dream.
2025-02-19
Updated 2025-03-13 09:25:15

Humane’s AI Pin: A $700 Dream That Died Screaming

Humane’s AI Pin was supposed to be the future—a wearable AI sidekick to ditch your smartphone and live free. Instead, it’s a $700 cautionary tale, officially dead as of February 28, 2025, after HP scooped up Humane’s guts for $116 million on February 18. X is roasting it, tech blogs are burying it, and buyers are left with a brick in ten days. Here’s how this hyped startup crashed, burned, and sold its soul.

The Hype: A Smartphone Killer?

Founded in 2018 by ex-Apple hotshots Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, Humane raised $230 million—Altos Ventures, Tiger Global, even Sam Altman tossed cash in. The pitch? A $699 AI Pin (plus $24/month for T-Mobile data) that’d project calls, texts, and AI queries onto your hand—Star Trek vibes, no screen. Launched April 2024, it promised to cut phone addiction. Consumers ate it up pre-release; posts hyped a “new era.” Humane bet it could rethink hardware.

The Fall: A Buggy, Burning Mess

Reality hit like a freight train. Early reviews—April 2024—tore it apart. Marques Brownlee’s “Worst Product I’ve Ever Reviewed” vid called it slow, buggy, and half-baked. Digital Trends dubbed it a “miserable smartphone replacement.” The crowd turned savage—posts like “$700 for a laggy pin?” piled on. By summer, returns outpaced sales (The Verge), and a June charging case recall—fire hazard—sealed the deal. Humane slashed it to $499 in October, but the stench of flop stuck. Hands-on truth: It couldn’t even nail basic calls or queries—AI dreams, human nightmares.

The Shutdown: HP’s $116M Grave Robbery

February 18, 2025, Humane waved the white flag—HP bought its software (Cosmos OS), patents (300+), and most staff for $116 million. The Pin? Dead by Feb 28, 12 PM PST—servers off, no calls, no AI, just a $700 paperweight. A hyped misunderstanding of AI’s limits. Refunds? Only for suckers who bought after November 15, 2024, per Humane’s FAQ—submit by Feb 27 or eat it. HP’s Tuan Tran told Bloomberg, “AI in all our devices”—Pin’s corpse fuels HP IQ, not standalone glory.

Why It Flopped: Hype vs. Hard Truths

Humane’s crash wasn’t bad luck—it was baked in. Hardware’s a beast—$230 million sounds big, but Apple burns that on coffee. The Pin’s AI leaned on cloud chops (OpenAI rumors), yet lagged. Too early, undercooked. No screen? Bold, but clunky—hand projections flopped in daylight. Humane’s “second brain” pitch ignored real-world grit—Zonos on Pinokio runs local, this didn’t. Overhype killed it—$750M-$1B valuation dreams (2024) crashed to $116M scraps.

The Aftermath: Lessons in AI Blood

HP’s betting on Cosmos OS and Humane’s crew—printers with AI, maybe? A good save? $116M and jobs kept ain’t chump change. But buyers? Screwed—ten days to sync data or lose it (Humane’s warning). Our blog readers seen AI shine—Hailuo’s 6-second clips stun cheap. Humane’s Pin proves hype’s a killer—launch fast, fail faster. Hands-on take: It’s a warning—AI’s hot, but hardware’s a graveyard.

Verdict: A Flop Worth Remembering

Humane’s AI Pin is dead—a $700 lesson in overreach. X’s roasting it as “useless electronics”; I say it’s a tombstone for blind AI faith. Your ai-ball.com crew—digging Zonos, Midjourney—knows tools that deliver. Humane didn’t—just a shiny flop that HP’s now dissecting. What’s your take—dumbest move they made? Hit me—I’m here for the post-mortem.

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