[ad_1]
Humane, a five-year-old artificial intelligence startup founded by former Apple designers Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno announced their first product on Thursday: a $699 pin that you wear on your lapel.
The Humane AI Pin is designed to replace your smartphone, allowing the user to call, text and look up information via voice control. It also has a laser display, which turns your palm into a mini screen that can show the time, date or whatever’s nearby.
“There are no wake words, so it’s not always listening or always recording,” Chaudhri said at the start of a 10-minute launch video on the company’s website. “Essentially, it doesn’t do anything until you engage with it, and your engagement comes through your voice, touch, gesture or the laser ink display.”
In addition to the initial cost of the device, customers must pay a monthly data plan of $24 T-Mobile, the company said. Having a separate phone number means that, unlike smart watches, the PIN code is not linked to a smartphone.
Humane raised eyebrows in March when it announced a $100 million funding round Microsoft, the venture arm of LG and Tiger Global before they ever announced a product. In total, the company has raised more than $200 million, with contributions from Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI Sales team CEO Marc Benioff.
Humane said it will start taking orders for the AI Pin on November 16.
In their Thursday video, Chaudhri and Bongiorno demonstrated some of the device’s features and discussed the technology, which is powered by a Qualcomm chipset. (Qualcomm Ventures is also an investor.)
The AI Pin has a built-in speaker and camera, and a light flashes when these features are enabled. Double-tapping the pin takes a photo or video, which can be viewed in Humane’s web app.
In addition to sending and receiving texts, the device can translate spoken conversations from Spanish to English and vice versa in real time, according to the demo.
Users can access AI services via the internet, instead of downloaded apps. Microsoft, GooglingOpenAI and other companies contribute AI services, the company said. Customers can ask to “play songs from famous science fiction movies” or ask for information, with answers provided by large language models. Access to music requires a subscription to Tidal.
The device’s assistant can also summarize the user’s daily agenda, messages received, or health data such as the amount of “protein I had today.”
WATCH: Brad Gerstner on AI
