Humane AI Pin raised $100 million in funding in March and garnered a great deal of attention, in part because of its exciting promise.

A TED talk by Humane co-founder Imran Chaudhry in April 2023 gave an early look at the Humane Ai Pin's attractive appearance.

The release date was subsequently pushed back to March of this year and then again to April. Humane also laid off some of its employees in January.

And now the Humane AI Pin is finally available, and reviewers on the web are giving their impressions: is it worth the $700 purchase price and $24/month subscription?

From what we have seen so far, the initial verdict of most reviewers seems to be "no." But is this a dumpster fire, as Futurism claims? Let's read some of the early reviews.

Rating 4/10

Wired's Julian Chokkatu wears the AI Pin and says he is interested in the Pin's potential, but not as a replacement for cell phones.

The good: "Some positives: I have made calls with the AI Pin and the person on the other end said they couldn't hear me well, but it's nice not to have the phone so close to my face. (See also wireless earbuds)."

The bad: "At one point, after asking the Ai Pin three questions, it warned me that the Pin was too hot and needed to cool down. Indeed, the touchpad and sides of the device were uncomfortably hot. (I touched the Ai Pin that Sherin Lowe was testing and it felt shockingly hot.)"

Rated 4/10

In The Verge, David Pierce criticized the many failures of the Ai Pin and the concept for a future where the Ai Pin is a killer device He described it as a proof of concept. Today, that is not the case.

The good: "The coolest thing I've been able to do with the AI Pin is something I've done several times. I stand in front of a store or restaurant, press and hold the touchpad and say, "Look at this restaurant and tell me if it has good reviews." the AI Pin takes a picture with the camera, calls up an image recognition model, figures out what I'm looking at, scours the web for reviews, and returns it. Tacombi has Great reviews. People really like the tacos and the friendly staff.

The bad: "AI Pin can't set alarms or timers. You can't add them to your calendar and it doesn't tell you what's already there. You can create notes and lists, which appear in the Humane Center web app, which is also where you connect the device to your contacts and see what photos you've uploaded. The problem with many voice assistants is that they can't do much.

Chris Velazco of the Washington Post was favorable to the AI Pin in his review, but ultimately it only caused him to rethink his phone usage.

The good: "Humane is right: interaction with such a device feels surprisingly natural.

The bad: "However, using the Pin can quickly become frustrating. For example, the tilt and pinch gestures: easy to understand, but difficult to master; even after two weeks, I'm still struggling to select the correct menu option.

Here's another problem: the projector is basically unreadable in the sun. Summer is right around the corner, and there should be plenty of warm days coming up where cell phones won't get in the way, but in broad daylight the Pin is not very useful.

Rated 50/100

Cherlynn Low of Endgadget questioned who the device is for and said the AI Pin makes the future seem distant.

The good: "The only thing the AI Pin can actually do competently is act as an interpreter. I tried talking to myself in English and Chinese and was honestly impressed not only with the accuracy of the translation and general voice expression, but also with the speed of the reply."

The Bad: "Not only is the Humane AI Pin slow, finicky, and hardly clever, but it makes me look pretty dumb. After a few days of testing, I no longer have any reason to wear it, although I was looking forward to showing it off to my friends. ...... In time, the AI pin may be worth a second look, but it's hard to imagine why we need a screenless AI wearable when there are so many devices available today that can be used to talk to an assistant."

Raymond Wong of Inverse is perhaps the most optimistic about the Ai Pin. This is version 1, and he expects Ai Pin to get to where it needs to be in versions 2 and 3.

Good point: "What use cases are there and what does it do that phones and smartwatches can't already do? The point of the first generation Ai Pin is not to replace smartphones, but to provide a different form factor, enabling computing and a different relationship with technology. Apps are the primary means of connecting to people and services, but they need not be the only way to access information; AI is bringing diversity back to computing."

The bad: "Early messaging on the AI Pin seemed to advertise it as a smartphone replacement; Humane backed down on that, but only because of vocal criticism, or as I myself have discovered, hardware and AI are as essential as a phone a lot of things, more reliably, faster, better, or because they cannot do them at all.