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Humane AI Pins Will Stop Working at the End of This Week

February 25, 2025 Admin

If you were one of the few artificial intelligence enthusiasts who bought a Humane AI pin, the time has come to say goodbye. The wearable device, which CNET principal writer Scott Stein said was like having “an AI-powered Star Trek communicator pinned to your shirt,” is being killed off at the end of this week.

Humane announced last week that it is being acquired by HP and will stop selling the pins. The end of days is coming quickly for your pin if you already have one — it’ll stop functioning on Friday. 

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CNET’s Scott Stein reviewed the device in April 2024, noting that the $699 pin seemed like science fiction but was a chore to use.

“The ideas inside Humane’s vision were interesting, but the execution — and its total lack of connection with any phone — made it feel absurd,” Stein said on Tuesday. “Also it was hard to control, didn’t work well and overheated extremely quickly.”

Stein enjoyed the language translation feature and said its camera quality was “fine but not great.” The device did not respond to voice activation and instead must be constantly tapped to be put into service. 

The pin could read things out loud, try to identify cars, plants and locations, or describe a room, Stein said in his review. But not without issues. When he asked it to identify a can of Spindrift flavored sparkling water, it told him instead about a 2022 Apple TV Plus movie, possibly mishearing his asking the device to “look” for the movie’s title, “Luck.”