Semi-Hemi-Demigod ,
@Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social avatar

I could see it being useful if it was an accessory to your phone. Not having to dig my phone out of my pocket to take a picture of something to look it up, or having a push-to-talk badge or pendant would make it more convenient, especially for folks like me who don't wear watches. And with Bluetooth it would have decent battery life.

But the damn thing can't even set a timer.

julianschmulian ,

„bethany bongiorno“ is the most made-up sounding name I‘ve ever heard

tigerjerusalem ,

This is hilarious, scrambling to get a golden parachute and live off some trust fund from the sale. The sad part is that they will probably get that.

FiniteBanjo ,

There are already copycat products out and I don't feel sympathy for any of them.

LeroyJenkins ,

alright guys I'll take one for the team and buy the company

windie ,

Relevant username.

LeroyJenkins ,

I'm gonna buy you too windie

Plopp ,

I've got some chores that need to get done, how much can I rent your guys for?

TheDarksteel94 ,

Pretty sure that's been illegal since 1865

Darkenfolk ,

Like with everything, only if you do not have enough money.

drislands ,

(•_•)

theherk ,

Least I got shit pin!

fubarx , (edited )

It's cool tech that is ahead of its time. 5-10 years from now, a big tech company will make something like this and everyone will cry Huzzah!

Magic Leap went the same route.

Edit:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Leap

Judging by the downvotes, I didn't state my point well enough. Magic Leap took a LOT of money, got a lot of hype, and nearly went out of business multiple times.

But they were also the first ones to demonstrate and kick off overlaying data on top of real world, what we now call Augmented Reality. Their implementation was clunky and the device was expensive, but it showed people a glimpse of what was possible in a head-mounted, immersive form factor. 10 years later, Apple released the Vision Pro which used different tech, but did pretty much what ML1 was trying to do.

I think the Humane AI pin tried some interesting concepts, but is heading in the same direction. The idea of a small, wearable, AI device is interesting. Ten years from now, when you can run it all on-device and have a hands-free, GPT-8 level conversation with it with no cloud connection may well be a yawn.

gedaliyah OP ,
@gedaliyah@lemmy.world avatar

It would be prettier useful to have one of those com badges from Star Trek. That seems to be the form factor.

barsquid ,

What now successful tech is this Magic Leap? I don't think I have heard of them.

fubarx ,

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Leap

Judging by the downvotes, I didn't state my point well enough. Magic Leap took a LOT of money, got a lot of hype, and nearly went out of business multiple times.

But they were also the first ones to demonstrate and kick off overlaying data on top of real world, what we now call Augmented Reality. Their implementation was clunky and the device was expensive, but it showed people a glimpse of what was possible in a head-mounted, immersive form factor. 10 years later, Apple released the Vision Pro which used different tech, but did pretty much what ML1 was trying to do.

I think the Humane AI pin tried some interesting concepts, but is heading in the same direction. The idea of a small, wearable, AI device is interesting. Ten years from now, when you can run it all on-device and have a hands-free, GPT-8 level conversation with it with no cloud connection may well be a yawn.

fubarx ,

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Leap

Judging by the downvotes, I didn't state my point well enough. Magic Leap took a LOT of money, got a lot of hype, and nearly went out of business multiple times.

But they were also the first ones to demonstrate and kick off overlaying data on top of real world, what we now call Augmented Reality. Their implementation was clunky and the device was expensive, but it showed people a glimpse of what was possible in a head-mounted, immersive form factor. 10 years later, Apple released the Vision Pro which used different tech, but did pretty much what ML1 was trying to do.

I think the Humane AI pin tried some interesting concepts, but is heading in the same direction. The idea of a small, wearable, AI device is interesting. Ten years from now, when you can run it all on-device and have a hands-free, GPT-8 level conversation with it with no cloud connection may well be a yawn.

fubarx ,

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Leap

Judging by the downvotes, I didn't state my point well enough. Magic Leap took a LOT of money, got a lot of hype, and nearly went out of business multiple times.

But they were also the first ones to demonstrate and kick off overlaying data on top of real world, what we now call Augmented Reality. Their implementation was clunky and the device was expensive, but it showed people a glimpse of what was possible in a head-mounted, immersive form factor. 10 years later, Apple released the Vision Pro which used different tech, but did pretty much what ML1 was trying to do.

I think the Humane AI pin tried some interesting concepts, but is heading in the same direction. The idea of a small, wearable, AI device is interesting. Ten years from now, when you can run it all on-device and have a hands-free, GPT-8 level conversation with it with no cloud connection may well be a yawn.

fubarx ,

Edited my post to explain better.

TheDarkBanana87 ,

Rabbit R1 will soon to follow

photonic_sorcerer ,
@photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Meh, that one is cheap enough and has a passable update cycle, I'd say it can stay relevant.

gedaliyah OP ,
@gedaliyah@lemmy.world avatar

It is also created by a crypto-scheme company. So I'm not sure I have too much confidence

demonsword ,
@demonsword@lemmy.world avatar

that one is cheap enough

it's basically a scam

DemBoSain ,
@DemBoSain@midwest.social avatar

Do they accept NFTs?

insaan ,

Why not? They can only go up in value!

UnsavoryMollusk ,

Maybe you could resale the one nabbit ured to sell to you !

dinckelman ,

This is the same as Ben Shapiro telling people to sell their houses once Florida goes under water from a climate crisis. To who? Neptune?

Grippler ,

Obviously to the Merfolk...duh!

andallthat ,

"Spectacular custom built oceanback, home, impressive land views & only a 5 minutes swim to the beach!"

InfiniWheel ,

Fucking Aquaman

elias_griffin ,
@elias_griffin@lemmy.world avatar

When you find out you were only good because you drank the trillion dollar brand Kool-Aid.

Here is female founder's LinkedIn background image, web search result top 20, with that thing on.

https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/D5616AQEGTRY3gObKdg/profile-displaybackgroundimage-shrink_200_800/0/1700176960650?e=2147483647&v=beta&t=GoILNFlkyeka_159L39sV2nlT57Phcz9ngiMCGm6eQ8

Demographic is..I mean was?

Here is an awkward photo of both Founders:
https://images.fastcompany.net/image/upload/w_596,c_limit,q_auto:best,f_auto/wp-cms/uploads/2020/09/i-Bethany-and-Imran.jpg

ghewl ,
@ghewl@lemmy.world avatar

Their adoption plan was just wrong. Few people want to give up their phones, and the general public has had enough of a learning curve struggle with mobile phones. The device didn't make sense, at least not in its current state.

The AI bubble will burst soon, and when it does, real innovation will happen.

stealth_cookies ,

They designed a product that doesn't solve a problem that anyone has. On top of that they designed something that doesn't even work well.

ghewl ,
@ghewl@lemmy.world avatar

Yep, at high price+monthly fee, too.

sundray ,
@sundray@lemmus.org avatar

If they had a couple of unbeatable patents that they just couldn't figure out how to turn into products, that's almost forgivable -- you blew your launch, so you sell out to a company who has the resources to make your ideas into something the public will buy. But as far as I can tell, these guys don't really have any IP worth buying them out for.

erwan ,

And it was overpriced. I can see people buying a useless toy for 50 bucks, but not for $700.

AA5B ,

I never looked into it, but assumed it was just like an “echo dot”. May deserves a premium for being smaller and belatedly powered, as much as $30?

ColeSloth ,

Even if they did want to give up their phones, they wouldn't for anything with a two to four hour device. Let alone something that only has a mild neato factor of a low powered laser projector. Smart watches do the same shit with a longer battery life and virtually no one's replacing their phones with those, either.

ekZepp ,
@ekZepp@lemmy.world avatar

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/bbb8c9d1-47ec-4b9f-92c6-01428c2472d4.jpeg

Blaster_M ,

dramatic music score

pigup ,

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/b85b2271-d00b-4527-9749-d46649ee2fd2.gif

Nommer ,

So this is scam right? Overpromise on a product that doesn't work then sell the company for some huge price because it's cutting edge technology? Because it feels like a scam.

voracitude ,

Yeah, the product was a boondoggle. Trying to sell the company after that launch, with nothing else in the pipeline, is a scam.

xantoxis ,

They're all scams. This one's just more obvious.

just_another_person ,

Anything with "AI" in the title is a cash grab with very little actual technical worth except the models and training data.

mPony ,

remember how over the past few years almost everything brand new had the word "blockchain" shoehorned into it for no good reason?

This is the same kind of thing. It's an atrocious boondoggle. There must still be a serious amount of cocaine floating around Venture Capitalist parties, because one of those boys is gonna drop 500M on this company and think they bought the dip, when in fact they, themselves, are the dip.

ColeSloth ,

Scam how? Selling pre-launch could have been a scam. Money taken from investors could have been a scam, depending on what they pitched. But selling after a complete and known flop of a release? There's no cards left on the table to be scammy about. "Here's our brand name. Here's our patent collection. We'd like to think our patents are worth a ton of money, but we know we'd be lucky getting twenty million."

Rekorse ,

My assumption is that, since they were always going to be about collecting, processing, and selling data (usually what AI is used for commercially) that they might have what they think is between 500m and 1b in data to sell.

This might be enough to start a company from or just to assimilate the data into your own company.

The price tag has to be over estimated though by quite a lot. If we read a story about the company selling for a few million, I dont think it would seem outrageous.

Evotech ,

It's just how the us economy works

autotldr Bot ,

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Despite seemingly having nothing else in the pipeline and the AI Pin being dead on arrival, Bloomberg reports the company is "seeking a price of between $750 million and $1 billion in a sale."

Humane was founded by two ex-Apple employees, Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, in 2018 and has raised $230 million from some big-name investors like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

The Humane AI Pin immediately seemed like an idea that only made sense in a VC pitch room.

The device is a wearable voice command box and camera that you magnetically clip onto a shirt, sort of like a Star Trek communicator.

The device comes in two halves, with a front processing unit and a back battery, and the side clipped together magnetically with your shirt in the middle.

Don't be surprised if history places Humane on the list of "biggest tech startup flops ever" alongside the likes of Juicero and Ouya.

The original article contains 441 words, the summary contains 154 words. Saved 65%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Gradually_Adjusting ,
@Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world avatar

Remember when nerds used to be smarter than us? That was awesome.

kat_angstrom ,

Nerds still are smarter than us.

Unfortunately a cult of managers has arisen to rule over the nerds and they hype with an iron fist.

wirehead ,

It's important to realize that the nerd you saw on the news has always been someone wearing nerd as a costume and the entire history of technology is loaded with examples of the real nerd being marginalized. It's just that in ages past the VC's would give a smaller amount of money and require the startup to go through concrete milestones to unlock all of it so there was more of a chance for the founder's dreams to smack up against reality before they were $230m in the hole with no product worth selling.

sundray ,
@sundray@lemmus.org avatar

20 years ago, the big question VCs were asking their startups was, "How do we convince Microsoft to buy this company?" Simpler times, back then.

erwan ,

10 years ago it was "how do we convince Google to buy this company?"

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