Probably no technological product has garnered as much accumulated criticism in such a short time as the AI Pin, a small device that is placed on clothing to interact with artificial intelligence (GPT-4 by OpenAI) at any time of the day. The ingenuity has been created by Humane, a company founded by two former Apple executives to bring an AI on top that solves all kinds of aspects and ends up replacing the mobile phone. But it is very far from that, as all the specialized media that have tested it have agreed to point out. The phone has no rival. At least, for now.
The arrival of generative artificial intelligence, with the launch of ChatGPT at the end of 2022, has opened new projects in the technology sector to offer new forms of access. The AI Pin is intended to be used by voice. It has a monochrome laser projector that draws a small interface on the palm of the hand that is operated (poorly) with finger gestures. It also has a small speaker, camera and a magnetic support on your clothes that acts as a battery. None of it works like it's supposed to.
One of the most devastating criticisms of Humane's AI Pin has been from the influential Marques Brownlee, who in a video on his YouTube channel with more than 6 million views has explained that it is the worst device he has reviewed in 15 years. In consumer technology, the wrong approach is often to create a product simply because the conditions exist to do so. In the purest logic of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, the thing should be quite the opposite: that if there is a need for a product then the conditions must be created so that it can be made. From there came some of the best ideas of the apple company.
Carrying a device that, although small, represents a certain weight on any clothing, does not seem very practical. The IA Pin is supported magnetically with a piece behind the fabric that acts as a wireless battery, a technology that generates heat. In addition, it has to be replaced or charged every couple of hours. The inconvenience could be acceptable if the user experience was good, but the device does not even resolve queries that can be viewed quickly and easily on any mobile phone. Another specialist, David Pierce of the technology website The Verge, said: "After many days of testing, the only thing I can really trust the AI Pin is to tell me the time."
The AI Pin has a price of 700 dollars to which a monthly subscription of 24 dollars must be added, because its connection is via the internet, but with a separate telephone number. Another small device, R1 from the Rabbit company, for $200, also wants to escape the telephone through its own AI model that immediately provides the user with what we otherwise look for with the mobile phone through applications. In the operation videos, one of the weak points is the connection waits when querying the AI in the cloud.
On the contrary, companies like Samsung and Google have already incorporated AI into their Galaxy S24 and Pixel 8 phones. The future seems more logical with small AI models integrated into the devices, without the need to connect to external servers. Responses will be faster and each user will also have artificial intelligence at their disposal that will learn things that are unique to them. The future remains to be defined, but the mobile phone seems to remain at the center of our attention.
