The Humane AI Pin was heavily criticized by reviewers when it was released in April So it is not surprising that the $699 wearable AI device was returned almost immediately by dissatisfied customers, according to a new report

The Verge obtained internal sales data and found that more AI Pins were returned to Humane than buyers between May and August of this year

Any product will lose sales if a big-name tech reviewer criticizes it too harshly; YouTuber Marques Brownlee called the pin "the worst product" in his now-famous review; Engadget's Cherlynn Low wrote in her review, "The Humane AI Pin is not only slow, finicky, and hardly even smart, it makes me look pretty dumb"

The potentially flaming recalled charging case definitely did not help Humane's case either

In late May, Humane was reportedly considering a sale, offering a valuation of $750 million to $1 billion; Tom's Guide's computing predicted that startups like Humane and Rabbit's goals would be acquired by larger companies Not surprisingly, for Jason England, managing editor in charge

This was shortly after Humane switched its AI model to OpenAI's GPT-4o, likely too late

HP was reportedly in the process of possibly acquiring the company, but this has not materialized Meanwhile, The Information reported that the company has increased its debt and is negotiating with investors to convert it into equity

Somehow in the midst of all this, AI Pin sold just over $9 million worth of accessories and devices, according to sales data Apparently over 1,000 purchases were canceled before shipment, and over $1 million worth of products were returned to Humaine

To date, about 10,000 AI pins and accessories have been shipped; according to a report in the New York Times in early June, the company is expecting to sell nearly 100,000 devices Using napkins to do the math, it appears that somehow there are still 7,000 AI Pins being worn on people's lapels around the world

Apparently, Humane has no way to reclaim or recycle AI Pins This is allegedly due to T-Mobile's restrictions, but T-Mobile has refused to comment

A Humane spokesperson told The Verge that there are inaccuracies in the financial data they reported, but declined to provide specifics or a more direct rebuttal

According to X's profile, co-founders Imran Chaudhry and Bethany Bongiorno claim that the Humane team patches and improves the AI Pin software on a weekly basis

A recent X thread by Bongiorno outlines improvements to GPT-40, the addition of Google's Gemini, translation, calendar recall, and "music interstitials"

From the outside, it is a company that chugs along improving their devices and offering more utility to their customers, while internally this is a company that was able to fake a $200 million investment but fired staff before the product was launched and a revolving door of executive team This is a company that had

Unnamed sources told The Verge that AI Pin received harsh feedback from early testers, including friends and family of employees, who said the demo video could not be replicated Despite such feedback, the device was launched

Not to be outdone by the AI Pin, the flawed Rabbit R1, launched shortly after the AI Pin, has its own problems Just this month, 404 Media reported that the company refused to take responsibility for ongoing security breach issues, blaming everyone from journalists and hacktivists to "malicious employees" "

Perhaps AI necklaces like the AI companion "Friend" or the "Limitless Pendant" will mark the future of AI wearables