Just months after launching, Hardware startup Humane announced on Tuesday that its ceasing services after selling parts of business to HP for $116 million. Cofounded by two ex-Apple employees Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, Humane’s futuristic AI pin was supposed to be the future of mobile technology and a smartphone replacement. Now, the product will completely stop working on February 28.

The trailer video of the product featuring the two cofounders was a spectacle, capturing our attention in November 2023. Yet not even a year after that video, the high-tech pin was crushed by a wave of negative reviews, and at one point the company’s daily returns outpaced individual sales.
Popular tech influencer MKBHD described the Humane Pin as the worst product he ever reviewed. And under the video of that brutally honest review, a comment by MKBHD’s peer Mrwhosetheboss beautifully summarizes the pin’s brief stint:

“Their ambition is full on Star Trek, their execution is pure Toy Story.”

The Humane AI Pin Had Too Many Flaws

In Humane’s defense, the concept of their product was ahead of its time. Artificial intelligence is taking the world by storm with platforms such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, X’s Grok, and the newest competitor: China’s DeepSeek. However, the hardware side of the Humane Pin was not something the masses were ready for. But that’s where the excuses end, because the constant issues were too excessive even for a startup.

With a 13MP camera with 1080p video, and an outdated Qualcomm processing chip, the Humane AI Chip’s hardware wasn’t going to be on par with smartphones. Yet, the unique features that gave it some appeal, failed. The pin uses a projector to display a dashboard in the palm of your hand, yet many people said they could barely see the projection during the day time. The hand gestures to navigate through the dashboard that you can’t see were inconsistent. Add the inconsistent and weak battery life, the batteries overheating and becoming a literal hazard, to constant misunderstanding by the AI’s virtual assistant, the $699 price it originally had was ludicrous.

Will HP Revive The Humane AI Pin?

HP creating its own AI pin is highly unlikely, but it did purchase Humane’s operating system, CosmosAI. So it’s possible that HP could use their AI for some of their future products such as computers and printers. The computer giant also acquired Humane’s software engineers with plans on developing a dedicated AI innovation lab, where they could look to go head-to-head with other AI software.

Hopefully Humane is just the beginning of the future for mobile devices. Shirt pins may not be the near future of mobile devices, but being able to access mobile phone features in the palm of our hands is. We’ll see who’s the next company to take a bold leap of faith.