Humane AI Pin: much-hyped gadget rocked by bad reviews

www.bbc.com Humane AI Pin: much-hyped gadget rocked by bad reviews

A new AI-fuelled gadget has fallen foul of the tech world's expectations.

cross-posted from: https://lemmit.online/post/2686042

Humane AI Pin: much-hyped gadget rocked by bad reviews

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The original was posted on /r/technology by /u/BubblyMcnutty on 2024-04-17 10:40:02.

68 comments

Who exactly was hyped about this?

Personally, I typically want my interactions with technology to be quiet. I don't want it talking, and I don't want to be talking to it.

Not to mention the privacy implications of an always-on camera and microphone connected to the internet
- Yeah i don't know. From everything i ever read or seen about it month ago, everyone seemed to agree that it's proper shit.
- Who exactly was hyped about this?
  
  IDK Trekkies maybe? Except it's shaped wrong, and beaming up doesn't work.
  If they manage that, maybe there's a market. 😋
  
  Snotty beamed me twice last night.
  
  I'd buy one. Unless beaming is a subscription, of course.
  
  bluetooth enabled comm badges are already available and not that big of a success.
- Do keep in mind the microphone is only on when you touch the touchpad, this device doesn't use "wake words" like Alexa, Google Assistant, etc
  
  One of few good aspects about it, but only if you don't think about it too much. The question remains is if you can actually trust this, because there is no physical button disconnecting microphone and camera. It's all just in software and could be unsafe.
- It was in the tech news for a little bit, to some that counts as hype
I could have told them this was a dumb idea from the start; creating something that doesn’t fill a need, is just another device to carry around and could just be an app on a phone that we already carry around, just to cram it down people’s throats “because AI,” is probably not a good business plan.
- Because AI is the new because blockchain.
- It got funded to the tune of $240m. Which was probably about as far as they thought this through.
  
  Yeah, I can’t imagine they thought this would be a serious product.
- ... and require a subscription too!
  
  Wow, I didn’t even realize that it requires a $24.99 per month plan from T-Mobile for voice, texting and data. These companies are getting really brazen.
- If you add a strap to it, it will be smartwatch. So there's a need and a niche, just not for one more way to do the same stuff
  
  That’s not a bad idea, but why not just integrate that functionality into a smartwatch?
- This pretty well describes smart watches in my mind outside of those that need to keep track of certain vitals all of the time as well.
  
  I used to feel the same, but they do fit a bit of a need for me. They work great as a silent alarm so you don’t wake up anyone else in your room, you don’t have to take your phone out to check time or notifications, and health and fitness tracking is better than what a phone can offer.
Business people see the word AI mentioned in the products: invest invest invest! Business people see AI products hit with honest tech reviews: thoSe PEAsants aRE RUIning ThE InnOVATIOn
- Terrible products like this might end poisoning the well for genuinely useful AI projects further down the line. “AI” will loose it’s buzz and instead become synonymous with failure to consumers and investors alike.
  
  Don’t get my hopes up
  
  Just like Blockchain or NFT
What the article doesn't mention is that there is pressure directed towards Marques Brownlee to get him to alter or remove his review by implying that reviews like his kill companies.

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/marques-brownlees-humane-ai-pin-review
- Marques is right. I'm sorry, for $700 goddamn dollars I refuse to be some random startup's R&D. I can't wait for the DiSrUpToR model to die a painful death.
  
  And to all the people crying because MKBHD was mean, I say: STFU. I watch him for his integrity. Your product is bad and you should feel bad.
  
  You can’t be mean to a company. Companies don’t have feelings. Fuck a company if it sucks. Fuck most companies, honestly. No company would go out of its way for me. It will lie to me, take my money…in fact, that’s its only function.: to take my money, by lying if necessary. If it doesn’t take my money, it fails as a company. That’s its prime directive.
  
  So…fuck any company.
  
  Yup, I didn't watch his review, but I watched his video about the review, and he's 100% right. If your product sucks, expect to get bad reviews. If your product is good, expect to get good reviews. If you're getting bad reviews and you know your product is good, talk with the reviewers to figure out what happened.
  
  MKBHD's reviews are fantastic. I've never once felt I'm being sold to, and I've always left feeling more educated about the product. Top notch if you ask me.
- Now I’m going to search it out and watch it, Streisand effect here we go.
  
  Only if you had tried to hide what Streisand effect is, we could've had Streisand effect of Streisand effect.
  
  Edit: Don't watch much review videos, hadn't even heard of the guy. Looked up the video, and ended up subscribing to his channel 😀 At least he is getting free publicity with it.
- Hey, I just watched the video on youtube last night. He started off with the good things such as the physical design of the device, or the interesting way it can project a laser image on your hand, but after that, it was all downhill.
- Which he did another video about
"much hyped" lol I have seen not one person who was positively looking forward to this. I don't really know why such dead in the water stupid idead even get any media attention at all.
- I thought it sounded neat, but I’m actively looking for a fun way to ditch regular smartphones. As soon as that rotary cell phone works on regular networks, I’m there.
  
  I guess if the AI works well, it could have some niche uses. But as far as I have seen it doesn't. It is also more marketed as a smartphone replacement, which for the vast majority of people it just wouldn't be. Also the demo examples like booking flights are just moronic.
Ummm… really? The technology is nowhere near the hype they are putting behind it. Just some AI snake oil salesmen. The next few years will be filled with “ai” e-waste as people use the buzzword to sell garbage.
Major problem with the gadget is the same as all AI. You can tell it to perform tasks as long as the task doesn't have any specific requirements to how you want it done and if you inevitably do have requirements its faster to do it yourself.
- The main problem with the gadget is that it just doesn't work very well.
  
  It works as well as any other AI product. The reason this works particularly bad is because it fully relies on the AI to function.
nad, an cheap Android phone for less than $200 can do the job.
- My first Android phone from 2010 was better at this and it didn't even have multitouch and just 160 MB of usable storage.
You can't just mention AI in a device description and expect people to buy it in flocks.
- But you can, look at Nvidia
  
  To be fair, their stuff actually works.
  
  My favorite was their calling their shield upscaling algorithm "AI". It's a fixed non-dynamic algorithm like any other, but they did use AI to make rapid iterative improvements during the development of the algorithm.
- Yes you can, when it works.
Good preview of most "AI" products being peddled by force

68 comments