Potential iPhone Killer? Humane AI Pin's Design, Interface 'Inherently Flawed,' Says Gurman: 'Can Merely Be An Extra Accessory'

Humane’s Ai Pin, a device that was expected to revolutionize the consumer tech industry, may not be the game-changer it was hyped up to be, said Bloomberg columnist Mark Gurman.

Not A Replacement: Testing of the the Humane Ai Pin revealed that “smartphones aren't going anywhere,” said Gurman in the latest installment of his “Power On” newsletter.

“Humane hasn't been shy about its ambitions: It wants to kill the smartphone — or at least reduce the need for one,” he added.

The brainchild of former Apple Inc. managers, the Ai Pin, priced at $700, was designed to be a smartphone alternative, the columnist said.

During testing, the device’s “AI technology itself works well — on par with the other generative AI systems on the market,” Gurman said. He noted that the Ai Pin knew the context needed to answer questions and its Vision feature could look at an object in a room and describe it aloud.

But the device was slow to respond or failed to recognize the touch gesture necessary to begin listening to a command, the Apple specialist said.

“It overheats to a worrisome degree and is missing key features, like the ability to control timers and calendars (those are coming). It also can't tap into third-party apps and has a frustratingly brief battery life — even with the extender,” he said.

Other flaws pointed out by Gurman included:

• Device not connecting to cellular network or responding to commands
• Touchpad not registering input
• Laser projecting a faint vertical orange line on the palm instead of the normal green-colored interface
• Challenge in setting up the AI pin

“But the inherent problem with the device isn't the glitchiness, its half-baked feature set or battery woes. The pin's fundamental design and interface are fatally flawed,” Gurman said.

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Not Worth Buying: Gurman said the Humane Ai Pin doesn’t have a future as a phone replacement or as an evolution of the computer. The company should have merely launched a phone or watch app, he said.

“But as a $700 piece of hardware, plus $24 month for service, it's never going to work and not worth buying.” he added.

At best, the device can merely be an extra accessory for “tech and AI fanatics willing to spend a pretty penny,” the columnist said. It isn’t easy to use it with one’s current phone, he said, adding that it requires a dedicated phone number.

“Humane has refused to launch a smartphone app to help set up the device and access its data,” Gurman said.

The columnist said Humane may have an outside chance of surviving if it repositions the pin and lowers the price significantly.

“But Humane seems intent on building an all-in-one platform that can exist outside the walls of the existing iOS and Android ecosystems. And that makes it more difficult for users to easily integrate it into their lives. No amount of marketing is going to fix that,” he said.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

Check out more of Benzinga’s Future Of Consumer Tech coverage by following this link.

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