Humane AI Pin
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The Humane AI Pin was a screenless, wearable AI device developed by Humane Inc., a San Francisco startup founded by former Apple designers Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno. Announced on November 9, 2023, and shipped to customers in April 2024, it was a small device that clipped magnetically to clothing and combined a voice assistant powered by large language models, a 13 MP camera, and a green "Laser Ink" projector that beamed a display onto the user's palm. The AI Pin sold for $699 plus a mandatory $24 per month subscription through T-Mobile, and was marketed as a post-smartphone wearable that would let people use artificial intelligence without staring at a screen [1].
The AI Pin received some of the worst product reviews in recent technology history, then was discontinued less than a year after launch. Marques Brownlee (MKBHD), one of the most influential technology reviewers on YouTube, titled his review "The Worst Product I've Ever Reviewed... For Now" and concluded that the Pin was "bad at almost everything it does basically all the time" [2][3]. The device suffered from slow performance, frequent overheating, inaccurate AI responses, and short battery life. Humane sold roughly 10,000 units against an internal target of 100,000, and by mid-2024 returns had begun to outpace new sales [4][11].
On February 18, 2025, Humane announced it was shutting down and selling most of its assets, including its CosmOS software platform, more than 300 patents and patent applications, and much of its engineering team, to HP Inc. for about $116 million [5]. The AI Pin stopped functioning at 12:00 PM Pacific Time on February 28, 2025, when Humane permanently shut down its servers, bricking the devices and deleting customer data [5]. The combined story of a celebrated founding team, $230 million in funding, a historically bad launch, and a fire-sale acquisition has made the AI Pin one of the most cited cautionary tales in consumer AI hardware.
Imran Chaudhri spent approximately 22 years at Apple, starting as an intern in 1995 in the Advanced Technology Group. During his tenure, he worked on the Mac, contributed to the creation of the iPhone, and was involved in the development of Apple Watch, HomePods, and AirPods. Chaudhri is credited with designing several key iPhone interface elements and was a named inventor on numerous Apple patents. He left Apple in 2017 to co-found Humane [1].
Bethany Bongiorno also held senior positions at Apple, where she served as Director of Software Engineering and led teams working on operating system development. She and Chaudhri, who are married, left Apple together with the vision of building the next generation of personal computing devices. Bongiorno served as CEO of Humane, while Chaudhri served as president and led product design [1].
Humane Inc. was co-founded by Chaudhri and Bongiorno after they left Apple in 2017. The company was formally incorporated in 2018 and operated in stealth mode for several years before revealing its first product. Some sources cite 2017 as the founding year (when the founders departed Apple and began the venture), while others use 2018 (the year of formal incorporation). The founders' Apple pedigree attracted significant investor interest. Humane raised over $230 million in venture funding from prominent backers including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Tiger Global, Qualcomm Ventures, Microsoft, SoftBank, LG, and Volvo. This level of funding for a pre-revenue hardware startup reflected both the strength of the founders' reputations and investor enthusiasm for the concept of AI-native hardware [5].
The company emerged from stealth mode in 2021 when it publicly announced a $100 million funding round led by Tiger Global. Even at that stage, Humane revealed almost nothing about what it was building, referring only to a vision for "devices that put people first" [1].
| Funding Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Total raised | $230 million+ |
| Key investors | Sam Altman, Marc Benioff, Tiger Global, Qualcomm Ventures, Microsoft, SoftBank, LG, Volvo |
| Founded | 2017 (venture began) / 2018 (incorporated) |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California |
| Employees (peak) | Approximately 200 |
| Valuation (peak) | Estimated at $850 million |
Humane first teased the AI Pin publicly during a TED talk by Imran Chaudhri in April 2023 at the Vancouver Convention Center. In a talk titled "The disappearing computer: and a world where you can take AI everywhere," Chaudhri demonstrated a prototype device clipped to his lapel that could project information onto his hand and respond to voice commands. During the demo, he answered a phone call from Bongiorno by pressing on an interface laser-projected onto his palm, asked the device to summarize his recent emails and calendar invites, used the camera to check the ingredients of a candy bar, and demonstrated real-time voice translation into French. The TED talk generated significant buzz and positioned Humane as a potential pioneer in post-smartphone computing [1][6].
The full product was officially unveiled on November 9, 2023, at a dedicated launch event. The announcement revealed the $699 price point, the $24 per month T-Mobile subscription requirement, and the device's feature set. Pre-orders opened one week later, with shipping scheduled for early 2024. The device began arriving to customers in April 2024.
The AI Pin was designed as a compact, screenless wearable intended to be worn on clothing at chest level.
The device consisted of two parts: the main unit containing the computing hardware, camera, and projector; and a detachable battery pack, called the Battery Booster, that attached magnetically through the user's clothing. This magnetic pass-through system meant the battery sat on the inside of the garment while the main unit faced outward. Humane sold additional Battery Boosters separately for $99 each, and users were expected to swap batteries throughout the day due to limited battery life. The device weighed approximately 55 grams (the main unit and one Battery Booster combined) and was available in three colors: Eclipse (black), Equinox (silver), and Lunar (gray) [1].
| Component | Specification |
|---|---|
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon (details not fully disclosed) |
| Camera | 13 MP ultra wide-angle (120 degree field of view) plus a 3D depth sensor |
| Projector | Green "Laser Ink" 720p monochrome display, Class 2 laser, usable at 20-40 cm |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 4G LTE (T-Mobile) |
| Storage | Cloud-based (Humane servers) |
| Interaction methods | Voice, touch gestures, laser projector, camera |
| Phone number | Dedicated T-Mobile number included with subscription |
| Weight | ~55 grams (main unit + Battery Booster) |
| Colors | Eclipse, Equinox, Lunar |
| Price | $699 device + $24 per month subscription |
| Battery Booster (extra) | $99 each |
The AI Pin's most visually distinctive feature was its Laser Ink Display, a tiny green monochrome laser projector that could project text and simple graphics onto the user's palm or nearby flat surfaces. The display rendered a 720p image in bright greens and whites and was usable only at a distance of roughly 20 to 40 cm (about 8 to 16 inches) from the device. Users would hold their hand in front of the Pin, and a built-in 3D depth sensor tracked the hand's position to keep the projection aligned. Menus could be navigated by rolling and tilting the hand, and an item was selected with a finger tap. The laser was rated as Class 2 under IEC 60825-1 [1].
In practice, the Laser Ink Display was widely criticized. The green monochrome projection was difficult to read in bright lighting conditions, the projected area was extremely small, and the interaction model of holding one's hand perfectly still in front of one's chest proved awkward and impractical for extended use.
The AI Pin ran Humane's proprietary Cosmos operating system (CosmOS) and used a combination of AI models for its assistant capabilities. Touching the device and speaking activated the "AI Mic" feature, which could answer questions, translate languages, summarize information, and compose messages. The device integrated with GPT-4 for general knowledge queries and used Microsoft and Google services for search and other functions [7].
The camera could be used to identify objects, read text, provide nutritional information about food, and translate written text in real time. Humane marketed these as "Catch Me Up" (summarizing notifications), "AI Mic" (voice queries), and various gesture-based commands.
The AI Pin included calling and messaging capabilities through its dedicated T-Mobile phone number. Users could make and receive calls, send and receive text messages, and access voicemail. However, these features required the $24 per month subscription, and the device depended entirely on Humane's cloud servers for processing. All data, including photos, messages, and AI interaction history, was stored on Humane's servers with no local storage option.
The AI Pin received catastrophically negative reviews from virtually every major technology outlet when review embargoes lifted in April 2024.
| Reviewer | Publication | Rating/Verdict | Notable Quote |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marques Brownlee | MKBHD (YouTube) | Worst product ever reviewed | "Bad at almost everything it does basically all the time" |
| David Pierce | The Verge | 4/10 | "So thoroughly unfinished and so totally broken in so many unacceptable ways" |
| Cherlynn Low | Engadget | Deeply negative | Called it unreliable and impractical for daily use |
| Multiple reviewers | Tom's Guide | Negative | Highlighted overheating and inaccuracy |
| Multiple reviewers | Wired | Negative | Questioned the fundamental product concept |
| Julian Chokkattu | Fast Company | Negative | Called the $699 price impossible to justify given the experience |
Overheating: The AI Pin regularly overheated during normal use. The heat from the processor and battery was often uncomfortable against the body, and the device would sometimes shut down mid-task due to thermal issues. In June 2024, Humane issued a recall of approximately 10,500 Battery Booster charging cases due to a fire hazard related to their lithium batteries. The charging cases, manufactured by a third-party supplier, posed a risk of overheating and potentially catching fire [8].
Extremely slow performance: Simple queries that a smartphone would answer in seconds took 10 to 30 seconds on the AI Pin. Every request had to travel to Humane's cloud servers for processing and return, introducing latency that made the device frustrating to use. Reviewers consistently noted that by the time the device responded, the user could have found the information faster on their phone.
Inaccurate AI responses: The AI frequently provided incorrect information. Reviewers documented instances of the device giving wrong nutritional data, incorrect factual answers, and inaccurate translations. For a device that positioned itself as a trustworthy AI companion, the error rate was unacceptably high.
Poor battery life: The Battery Booster lasted only two to four hours under normal use, requiring users to carry and swap multiple batteries throughout the day. The magnetic attachment system, while clever in concept, added friction to an already cumbersome user experience.
Impractical projection: The Laser Ink Display, while technologically interesting, proved impractical in real-world conditions. The small green projection was nearly invisible outdoors in direct sunlight, and holding one's palm at chest level to read information felt unnatural and conspicuous.
$24 per month subscription: The mandatory monthly subscription, which included the T-Mobile phone number and cloud processing, struck reviewers as excessive for a device that performed so poorly. The total first-year cost of ownership exceeded $987.
Marques Brownlee's review, titled "The Worst Product I've Ever Reviewed... For Now," was particularly impactful due to his enormous audience (over 18 million YouTube subscribers at the time) and went on to accumulate more than 8.5 million views. The roughly 25-minute review methodically documented every shortcoming of the device, from its slow response times to its unreliable AI answers, and summarized the verdict bluntly: the Pin was "bad at almost everything it does basically all the time" [2][3].
Brownlee's willingness to use such strong language sparked a debate about the ethics and responsibilities of tech reviewers, particularly regarding their influence on startups. Daniel Vassallo, a prominent figure in the tech community, wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that he found the review "distasteful, almost unethical" given Brownlee's reach, arguing that "with great reach comes great responsibility" and that "potentially killing someone else's nascent project reeks of carelessness." Some commenters went further, claiming that "MKBHD bankrupted a company in 41 seconds" [9].
Brownlee responded to the criticism in a follow-up video titled "Do Bad Reviews Kill Companies?" in which he argued that tech reviewers have no obligation to soften their assessments to protect a company's business prospects. He noted that every other major publication reached similar conclusions about the AI Pin. TechCrunch's Brian Heater wrote that blaming a reviewer for a product's failure was misguided, pointing out that the product's fundamental problems were evident to anyone who used it [10]. The consensus among industry observers was that Brownlee's review, while blunt, accurately reflected the device's severe shortcomings.
Humane had reportedly set an internal target of selling 100,000 AI Pin units. The actual sales figure was approximately 10,000 units, just 10% of the goal [4].
The AI Pin generated approximately $9 million in revenue from device sales. However, the company's return rate was devastating. According to reporting by The Verge and other outlets citing internal data, returns began outpacing new sales between May and August 2024. By June 2024, only around 8,000 units had not been returned. By late August, that number had fallen closer to 7,000. The company absorbed more than $1 million in product returns during this period [11][12].
The combination of poor reviews, negative word-of-mouth, and the high price point effectively killed consumer demand within weeks of launch. Many early adopters who kept their devices reported that subsequent software updates failed to meaningfully address the core problems of speed, accuracy, and battery life.
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Sales target | 100,000 units |
| Actual units sold | ~10,000 |
| Units not returned (June 2024) | ~8,000 |
| Units not returned (August 2024) | ~7,000 |
| Total revenue from device sales | ~$9 million |
| Total returns value | $1 million+ |
| Device price | $699 |
| Monthly subscription | $24 |
| First-year cost | $987 |
| Total funding raised | $230 million+ |
| Asset sale price (to HP) | $116 million |
By May 2024, just one month after the AI Pin began shipping, Bloomberg reported that Humane was exploring a sale of the company. The asking price was reported to be between $750 million and $1 billion, a figure that reflected the company's previous fundraising valuations rather than its commercial reality. At the time, the company had sold only around 10,000 units of a device that was receiving historically bad reviews. No buyer materialized at that price point [13].
The failed sale attempt highlighted the disconnect between how the company's founders and investors valued Humane (based on its technology, patents, and team) and how the market valued it (based on the AI Pin's commercial performance). Several potential acquirers reportedly held discussions with Humane but walked away after assessing the state of the product and its sales trajectory.
On February 18, 2025, Humane announced that it was shutting down and selling its assets to HP Inc. for $116 million. The deal represented a steep discount from the earlier $750 million to $1 billion asking price and fell well below the $230 million that investors had put into the company. For investors, the $116 million return on a $230 million+ investment represented a significant loss [5].
HP's acquisition included:
Notably, the deal did not include the AI Pin hardware business, which was shuttered entirely. HP announced it would use the acquired technology and talent to form a new AI innovation lab called HP IQ, described as "an AI innovation lab focused on building an intelligent ecosystem across HP's products and services for the future of work," with plans to integrate AI capabilities across its PC, smart office, and consumer device portfolio [5].
The acquisition was not smooth for all Humane employees. According to TechCrunch, several Humane employees received job offers from HP with substantial pay increases of 30% to 70%, along with HP stock options and bonus plans. However, other employees were laid off via email and had their access to company systems cut off immediately. The selective nature of the hiring process created tension among the Humane team during the transition period [14].
Humane announced that the AI Pin would permanently cease functioning at 12:00 PM Pacific Time on February 28, 2025. After that date, devices lost the ability to make calls, send messages, process AI queries, or access cloud storage. All user data stored on Humane's servers was permanently deleted, though customers were given the option to download their data beforehand. Customers whose devices had shipped on or after November 15, 2024 (within the previous 90 days) were eligible for a refund, but anyone who bought the device earlier was left with a non-functional piece of hardware that had cost them $699 [5].
The abrupt shutdown raised concerns among consumer advocates about the risks of purchasing hardware that depends entirely on a company's cloud infrastructure. Consumer Reports published an analysis questioning whether companies should be allowed to render purchased hardware permanently non-functional through server shutdowns. The situation became a widely cited example of the "subscription trap" in consumer electronics, where a purchased device becomes useless without ongoing services from the manufacturer.
The Humane AI Pin and the Rabbit R1 launched within weeks of each other in early 2024 and shared a similar premise: a dedicated AI hardware device that could replace or supplement the smartphone. Both products failed to meet expectations, but their trajectories diverged significantly after launch.
| Feature | Humane AI Pin | Rabbit R1 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $699 + $24 per month subscription | $199 (no subscription) |
| Form factor | Wearable pin (screenless, laser projector) | Handheld device with 2.88-inch color touchscreen |
| Weight | ~55 grams | 115 grams |
| Display | Green monochrome laser projection on palm | 2.88-inch color LCD touchscreen |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 4G LTE (T-Mobile) | Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 4G LTE (SIM slot) |
| AI model | GPT-4 + Cosmos OS | Large Action Model (LAM) |
| Camera | 13 MP | 8 MP |
| Units sold | ~10,000 | 100,000+ pre-orders |
| First-year cost | $987 | $199 (one-time) |
| Return rate | Very high (returns exceeded sales by mid-2024) | High, though exact figures not publicly disclosed |
| Company outcome | Shut down; assets sold to HP for $116M (Feb 2025) | Still operating; released RabbitOS 2 (Sep 2025); planning next-gen device for 2026 |
| Device status (March 2026) | Non-functional (servers shut down Feb 28, 2025) | Still functional with ongoing software updates |
| Key criticism | Overheating, slow, inaccurate, impractical projection | Limited app support, overpromised features, could have been a phone app |
| Notable review | MKBHD: "Worst product I've ever reviewed" | MKBHD: "Barely reviewable" |
The Rabbit R1 had a notable advantage in its lower price point, which lowered the stakes for buyers and reduced the sting of disappointment. The $199 price tag, with no ongoing subscription, meant buyers risked far less than the nearly $1,000 first-year commitment required by the AI Pin. Rabbit also benefited from maintaining its service: while the AI Pin was bricked in February 2025, the Rabbit R1 continued to receive software updates and released a major overhaul, RabbitOS 2, in September 2025 that substantially improved the device's functionality and user experience [15].
Both products shared a core problem: neither could convincingly answer why a user would choose a limited, single-purpose AI device over their smartphone. Smartphones already had access to the same AI models (through apps like ChatGPT and Google Gemini), offered faster performance, had better displays, and could do everything the dedicated devices could do plus far more.
The Humane AI Pin has become one of the most cited cautionary tales in technology product history, alongside products like Google Glass and the Amazon Fire Phone. Several themes have emerged from post-mortem analyses.
Like the Rabbit R1, which launched in the same period with similar ambitions, the AI Pin failed to answer the fundamental question: what can this do that my phone cannot? In almost every category (speed, reliability, functionality, display quality), a smartphone outperformed the AI Pin. Following the failure of dedicated AI devices in 2024, the industry pivoted toward embedding AI capabilities directly into existing platforms. Google integrated Gemini as a permanent replacement for Google Assistant across Android, and Apple expanded Siri with large language model capabilities [16].
Many analysts concluded that the underlying AI technology in 2024 was simply not capable enough to power the kind of seamless, reliable assistant experience that Humane envisioned. Large language models still hallucinated too frequently, voice recognition was not accurate enough in noisy environments, and the computational requirements for on-device AI processing exceeded what the hardware could deliver.
Humane designed and manufactured the AI Pin over several years, during which the AI landscape shifted dramatically. By the time the product shipped, the smartphone-based AI assistants it was supposed to replace had improved significantly, narrowing whatever advantage a dedicated device might have offered. The mismatch between hardware development cycles (measured in years) and AI software progress (measured in months) created a structural disadvantage that Humane could not overcome.
The AI Pin's complete dependence on Humane's servers meant that when the company folded, customers' $699 devices became inert objects. This outcome highlighted the risk of purchasing hardware that cannot function without ongoing cloud services from a startup whose long-term viability is uncertain. The phrase "bricked by bankruptcy" entered the tech lexicon partly because of the AI Pin's fate.
Despite the founders' impressive Apple backgrounds and $230 million in funding from high-profile investors, the company failed to deliver a viable product. The AI Pin serves as a reminder that institutional pedigree and investor confidence do not guarantee product-market fit. Having built great products at a large company does not automatically translate into the ability to build a great product at a startup, where resources, brand recognition, and infrastructure are vastly different.
While dedicated AI hardware devices like the AI Pin and Rabbit R1 struggled, one product in the AI wearable space found success: the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses. Rather than attempting to replace the smartphone, the Ray-Ban Meta glasses incorporated AI (via Meta AI) as one feature within a familiar, useful form factor. Users wore them as regular sunglasses that could also take photos, play music, and answer AI queries. The product succeeded because it added AI to something people already wanted, rather than asking them to adopt an entirely new device category [16].
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2017 | Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno leave Apple to start Humane |
| 2018 | Humane Inc. formally incorporated |
| 2018-2023 | Company operates in stealth, raises $230M+ in funding |
| September 2021 | Humane emerges from stealth with $100M funding round (Tiger Global) |
| April 2023 | Imran Chaudhri demos prototype at TED conference in Vancouver |
| November 9, 2023 | AI Pin officially announced; pre-orders open at $699 |
| April 2024 | AI Pin begins shipping; reviews are overwhelmingly negative |
| April 16, 2024 | MKBHD publishes "The Worst Product I've Ever Reviewed... For Now" video |
| May 2024 | Reports emerge that Humane is exploring sale ($750M-$1B asking price) |
| May-August 2024 | Returns begin to outpace new sales |
| June 2024 | Battery Booster charging case recalled due to fire hazard (~10,500 units) |
| Mid-2024 | No buyer found at $750M-$1B asking price |
| February 18, 2025 | Humane announces shutdown; HP acquires assets for $116 million |
| February 28, 2025 | AI Pin servers shut down permanently; all devices stop functioning; user data deleted |
As of early 2026, the Humane AI Pin no longer exists as a functioning product. All devices stopped working on February 28, 2025, when Humane's servers were permanently shut down. The technology and talent acquired by HP are being integrated into HP IQ, HP's AI innovation lab, with the goal of embedding AI capabilities into HP's existing product lines rather than building standalone AI hardware.
Co-founders Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno joined HP as part of the acquisition and are leading aspects of the HP IQ initiative. The over 300 patents acquired by HP cover areas including voice interaction, projection display technology, wearable computing, and AI assistant architectures. HP has indicated that CosmOS technology will be integrated into HP personal computers to enhance productivity and user interaction, and into HP's printing and workplace collaboration products [5][14].
The AI Pin's legacy persists primarily as a cautionary tale. It is frequently referenced in discussions about AI hardware product development, the challenges of competing with smartphones, and the risks of cloud-dependent consumer devices. Alongside the Rabbit R1, the AI Pin defined 2024 as the year that the first wave of dedicated AI hardware products crashed against the reality of consumer expectations and the enduring dominance of the smartphone form factor.