Hype company Humane closes down, HP buys the remains
The Humane AI Pin has failed. On 28 February, the company shuts down its servers, making the gadget even more useless than it already was according to test reports. The patents and the team are taken over by HP.
Humane sold the majority of its business to HP for 116 million US dollars. The start-up, founded by a former Apple designer, gained notoriety a year ago when it launched an "AI pin" on the market amid the hype surrounding artificial intelligence (AI). It was intended as an interface for AI functions and was designed to replace the smartphone in certain situations.
Now the AI Pin will become electronic waste. It is no longer available and Humane will shut down its servers on 28 February. After that, cloud-based services will no longer work - in other words, virtually everything the pin is designed for. Only offline functions such as the battery indicator will remain.
Users will be able to download saved notes and media over the next few days. Only customers who purchased the product no more than 90 days ago will receive compensation for the soon to be useless gadget. All others will go away empty-handed. Anyone who has already purchased the paid plan beyond the switch-off date will at least get their money back.
Employees switch to HP
HP will receive the rights to the CosmOS operating system as well as over 300 patents and patent applications. The price of 116 million US dollars is well below Humane's original expectations. According to reports, the founding couple Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno were already looking for potential buyers shortly after the unsuccessful launch - at a price of one billion US dollars.
Source: Humane
Chaudhri and Bongiorno are to set up a new department at HP called "HP IQ" to integrate AI into the computer manufacturer's devices. Most of the remaining employees are also moving to HP.
"It's just not working"
The Humane AI Pin was marketed as a revolutionary new product in the run-up to its market launch. In the end, however, the hyped gadget turned out to be unfinished and virtually useless. YouTuber Marques Brownlee described it as "the worst product I've ever tested". The tech portal "The Verge" also stated in its review: "It just doesn't work."
Header image: Humane
72 people like this article
Samuel Buchmann
Senior Editor
Samuel.Buchmann@digitecgalaxus.chMy fingerprint often changes so drastically that my MacBook doesn't recognise it anymore. The reason? If I'm not clinging to a monitor or camera, I'm probably clinging to a rockface by the tips of my fingers.
