Since launch, Humane's AI Pin has received widespread criticism, with mostly negative reviews across the board. The worst part is that the company, founded by two ex-Apple employees, hasn't met its modest sales target and is now looking for a buyer, and is asking for a high price to buy it, ironically.
While companies like OpenAI are making the best AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT 4o, easily accessible to the masses, and smart devices like mobile phones bring AI tools such as Galaxy AI features to general audiences, the market's opinion of Humane was never high. Despite this, the negative reviews and resulting disappointment have put Humane in a tough spot. To make matters worse, current employees have shared their opinions on the negative reviews, suggesting that the critics lack optimism about the future of the AI Pin.
At launch, the Humane AI Pin was seen as an expensive accessory, costing buyers over $700, especially with the essential monthly subscription. That means it's no surprise that, after months of building hype around the product, Humane's AI Pin only sold 10,000 units, falling short of the modest 100,000 sales target.
This is according to a report from The New York Times, and the report also suggests that Humane is looking to sell itself to a larger company to further fund its projects. Recently, there have been rumors that HP is in talks to buy the AI company.
The report indicates that HP is considering buying Humane for a steep $1 billion, despite the company's underwhelming debut product. Rumors suggested that Humane valued itself between $750 million and $1 billion, and this deal with HP would be at the upper end of that evaluation.
This isn't the only controversy since the product's launch. Humane has emailed customers about a fire risk for the charging case, advising users not to charge their devices due to an issue with the third-party battery cell. Meanwhile, Humane competitor Rabbit is under scrutiny, with industry engineers suggesting that the product doesn't even use AI.
The biggest issue for general audiences is that these AI gadgets are practically useless—they do everything a regular smartphone can do, but worse. With the likes of ChatGPT 4o outperforming voice assistants and AI gadgets, there's little reason to purchase one of these devices anytime soon.