- Humane, an AI startup founded by two ex-Apple designers, is set to release its AI Pin next month.
- The screen-free AI Pin is being marketed as an AI-powered personal assistant, and will run GPT-4.
- The device has a tiny projector, plus a camera and mic with a privacy indicator when recording.
The highly-anticipated “Ai Pin” by Humane is set to release on November 9, and more details are coming out about the device ahead of its full unveiling.
Humane, an AI tech startup, was founded by two former Apple designers — Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno — whose mission, according to the company’s website, is to create technology that “improves the human experience” and can “put us back in touch with others, each other, and the world around us.”
Ai Pin will be a standalone device — no need to pair it with a phone — and will act as an AI personal assistant that you wear, operating primarily by voice to allow the user to ask it questions, answer calls, and send texts. The system will use a mix of Humane’s software and OpenAI’s GPT-4, Time reported in its list of “Best Inventions of 2023.”
It does have a tiny projector for a user’s more visual needs, however. At a TED conference earlier this year, Chaudhri gave a demonstration of how the device might function, viewing a call notification projected against the palm of his hand.
At the event, Chaudhri also prompted the device to produce a French translation of a sentence he spoke to it, and asked the device where he might be able to buy his wife (he and Bongiorno are also married) a gift, prompting an answer about a popular shopping district in the city.
Though the pin will have input sensors, a camera, and a microphone, Humane describes the device as “privacy-first.” It will have no wake word, and thus no always-on listening, according to the company, and will have a privacy indicator called a “Trust Light” that will turn on when the camera, mic, or sensors are active so those around will be aware, Time reported.
The wearable device will be worn by attaching magnetically to its user’s clothing. In a recent runway reveal at French luxury brand Coperni’s Paris fashion show ahead of the device’s full unveiling, the device was shown attached to jacket and blazer lapels, as well as pants pockets.
Humane’s impending release of its Ai Pin comes as tech companies race to build AI-powered devices and cash in on the AI hype. Meta unveiled its latest generation of Ray-Ban smart glasses in September which integrate Meta AI, Meta’s conversational assistant. Apple’s former design chief and OpenAI’s Sam Altman are also reportedly building an AI hardware device together.
Some tech experts believe that this new wave of AI-powered devices will produce the next smartphone — in other words, the next device that becomes integral to all our daily lives, though Altman more recently said he has “no interest in trying to compete with a smartphone.”
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