- A new AI-powered smart device is set to launch on Thursday at $699, per The Verge.
- Developer Humane also charges $24 per month for access to a mobile network and full AI features.
- Its founders believe their screenless AI Pin will usher in an era beyond the typical smartphone.
Humane’s AI Pin, a much-hyped AI-powered smart device set to debut on Thursday, will cost $699 with a $24 per-month subscription, according to The Verge.
The square-shaped Pin, a wearable screenless device that’s about two inches by two inches, will feature batteries that can be swapped out and will ship with two “battery boosters,” the outlet reported on Wednesday, citing leaked documents it obtained about the launch.
The Verge wrote that the documents showed the AI Pin is essentially a “$699 wearable smartphone without a screen.”
The $699 package comes with the device, a charger, and the two battery boosters. The $24 per-month subscription provides a phone number, cell data, cloud storage, and unlimited interaction with the pin’s AI models, per The Verge.
The device uses a wireless service that runs on T-Mobile’s network, the outlet reported.
A bevy of other features are also set to be unveiled on Thursday, including translation services, music streaming, email inbox summaries, and writing messages that sound like the user, The Verge reported, citing the documents.
The AI Pin hopes to trounce the smartphone
Humane’s founders, ex-Apple designers Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, envision their AI Pin as the first step toward a world that’s moved beyond the typical smartphone and tech addiction.
Many people on its team — nearly half of its staff — are former Apple employees, The Information’s Julia Black reported.
Their standalone device runs on OpenAI’s GPT-4 — the latest available version of the chat-based artificial intelligence that captivated the world — and users are supposed to interact with the Pin using voice control.
The goal is to have an AI assistant on your breast that can talk to you like a human through its in-built speakers. According to The Verge, the Pin can also connect to Bluetooth headphones.
Motion sensors and a camera built into the device allow the Pin to record its surroundings. The AI-camera combo, Humane hopes, allows the assistant to observe your environment and give you relevant information.
At a TED Talk in April, Chaudhri demonstrated showing the AI Pin a Milky Bar and asking it if he could eat the candy.
“A Milky Bar contains cocoa butter. Given your intolerance, you may want to avoid it,” the device responded.
“My AI knows what’s best for me. But I’m in total control,” Chaudhri said.
When it comes to privacy, Humane has said the device will only start listening to the user or surveilling when it is manually activated.
That’s compared to, for example, Alexa’s method of activation, which passively listens for a wake word. A “Trust Light” on the Pin is also supposed to turn on whenever the camera, mic, or sensors are active, so users will know when it’s awake.
The Pin can also communicate by projecting a green laser on your hand, though Chaudhri’s demo of this in April showed only simple imagery with three icons, a word, and some numbers to resemble a call screen on a smartphone.
Humane’s team will likely market the Pin as a luxury product, with previous estimates of its selling price ranging up to $1,000, per The Information.
Jonas Gustavsson for The Washington Post via Getty Images
The company teased the device at a September fashion show in Paris, where supermodel Naomi Campbell walked the runway with the Pin on her jacket.
