alt Hacker NewsHP Acquires Humane's AI Software
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> Device Timeline: Your Ai Pin will continue to function normally until 12pm PST on February 28, 2025. After this date, it will no longer connect to Humane’s servers, and .Center access will be fully retired.
> Device Features: Your Ai Pin features will no longer include calling, messaging, Ai queries/responses, or cloud access.
For a $700 device that was on the market for less than a year, that is a not a stellar way to treat your customers. Fortunately it seems there were very few of those.
[0] https://support.humane.com/hc/en-us/articles/34374173951373-...
The Verge on this:
https://www.theverge.com/news/614883/humane-ai-hp-acquisitio...
> After the shutdown, offline features like “battery level” will still work, Humane says, but “any function that requires cloud connectivity like voice interactions, AI responses, and .Center access” will not.
I'd really like to know if the Humane PR flack typed that with a straight face.
My prediction is that HP will make some half-hearted attempts to do something with it for a while, and then will sell it at a loss to LG. LG will use it in one or two of their smart TVs and then release it as open source, at which point it will be forgotten. (ref: WebOS)
So if I'm reading this right, every single customer of Humane is going to have their device bricked in ten days? Wow, I bet both of them are going to be seriously pissed!
Working at HP is the punishment for dumping this product onto people for $700.
HP, noted compulsive buyer of complete junk, in buying complete junk shocker (see Autonomy, Palm, etc).
$116 million is a pretty nice payday for a product that never remotely lived up to the hype and had, by the end, negative numbers of customers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ntPxdWAWq8
:%s/Cloud/AI/g
So this is just an acquihire right? Can't imagine what HP will do with Humane's "AI software" (aka ChatGPT wrapper).
This is really an advertisement for on-device ML. If shutting down the servers bricks your device, I’m less interested in expensive fledgling products.
It's easy to point and laugh at a failed product with puzzling features, but I have respect for what Humane tried to do. They attempted to produce an AI product and get it to stand on its own two legs (metaphorically). They didn't have an annoying CEO grandstanding about the amazing tech while handwaving away hallucinations and common bugs, something Valley leadership does way too much of.
They didn't start with a VC-friendly strategy of free-then-paid to acquire market share. There was an off-putting monthly subscription right at the start. No confusion about what this product's business model or target customer was.
Contrast that to the ham-fisted way Apple, Android and Microsoft are attempting to bootstrap their AI offerings by jamming it into successful hardware products and sneaking users into it with dark patterns to opt them in.
Interesting they thought they could disrupt phones: devices with almost 20 years of iterative improvements, extremely mature app stores, tons of functionality, fast ubiquitous internet, etc.
You couldn't even connect the Ai Pin to your phone ?! Lock-in makes sense but it was a very risky bet.
Essential viewing: Review of the Ai Pin - The Worst Product I've Ever Reviewed... For Now (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TitZV6k8zfA)
Did anyone think the ai pin would go any other way? This was bound to happen the moment it was announced. The rabbit and others are also probably heading in that direction. The hardware just isn’t quite there yet and so is the software
While the device and company were clearly flawed and there wasn't even a tiny niche that seemed to love the product, some part of me admires their audacity in trying to do something transformational.
There's a lot to post-mortem here, but failures like these are part of an entrepreneurial culture.
Coming soon to your next printer: navigate through menus with a pico projector sending dim light onto your outstretched palm...
I loved the interface Humane AI wanted the world to work through. But I hated the subscription fee, the lack of wifi, and the reliance on modem connectivity. It was supposed to be a wearable device (that connects to your phone). It was supposed to complement your smartwatch with an on-demand screen in the palm of your hands. It was supposed to be AI augmented, but not AI centered.
I am glad someone will take the tech. But I am upset it is HP and I doubt they have a vision for the product.
From Robert Scoble...
>The end of an AI hardware experiment. Lots of reasons this didn’t do well, from trying to get people to do something they don’t already do (wear a computer on their clothes) to poor execution. The research @IrenaCronin and I do shows glasses are the form factor but they are still years from having decent all color displays. Until then it will be hard to get people to use much other than their phones.
I can imagine the conversation at the meetings:
Humane rep: Here’s what we can do. We can just shut it down. The fine print says we can.
HP rep: Excellent! You’ll fit right in here at HP!
This reminds me a lot of the 3Com "Audrey" [0]. And of course HP now owns that as well. I have some bittersweet memories of hacking on that thing after the services were terminated. Maybe this could follow that afterlife legacy.
I can't believe they were able to squeeze $118 million out of this scam. There ain't no justice.
If you thought HP's crapware was insultingly bad before, wait until they start putting some 8b models trained on their marketing bullshit to helpfully shill wherever a sidebar can be planted.
Of course. It definitely wasn't worth $1B as I said before [0] when they tried to sell at that valuation. [1]
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40598742
[1] https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/6/24172718/humane-ai-pin-sel...
> highly skilled technical talent, and intellectual property with more than 300 patents and patent applications.
The only reason a dinosaur like HP is even buying out this no-name player.
Can’t wait for the inevitable AI enabled printers. Bonus points if it’s a multimodal vision model and requires and dance per printed page. (Plus subscription ofc)
It's phrased in a way that indicates the Humane brand and company is not part of the deal? Just assets (patents, software, staff) but not the name or brand? I would not be surprised if it rose from the ashes at some point.
Hopefully it will also improve the product design engineering quality at HP. While the AI pin is a bit useless the industrial product design is at a high level. From what I remember it’s mostly an core of Apple engineers
Congrats on turning $230M USD into $116M USD.
Sounds easy but it took 6 years of hard work!
If any VCs who "invested" some of the $230 million into the dumbest product ever from obvious morons would like to instead invest with me, I'm pretty confident I can do better than a 0.5x return!
Related Bloomberg story: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43095699
FWIW, They tried hard. they could have adopted ChatGpt Advanced Voice mode, what would have made the device a super hit.
The main thing I'm sad about is that presumably their lovely custom font (Humane VF) will disapear. I covert it
I don’t get it. Why did they not just sell this as a hardware device? The projector on it is cool. That alone starts competing with my Apple Watch.
These guys figured out an entire new category of hardware peripheral, and did what I understood to be some pretty cool engineering to make it work.
WHY do people push this closed off ecosystem stuff? Seriously I do not get it.
“HP jumps the train in a detached wagon.”
That thing failed to explain what it does and how. As one reviewer said, “with this battery, I can spend a whole day”.
Can’t believe they managed to find someone to buy this nothing-burger for $100m+.
The notion of a class-action lawsuit was born for this day.
A perfect match :)
This product, it's build-up and it's eventual unveiling legitimately felt like the very best of satirical comedy.
“…$116 million…”
does spit-take
I can't imagine that Humane has anything worth $100 million. HP just likes lighting money on fire I guess.
this is a good reminder for all those developers that seem to think marketing is meaningless
Good Luck, HP trying to keep Humane afloat
well, now you KNOW ai is worthless.
> Ai Pin will still allow for offline features like battery level
> https://support.humane.com/hc/en-us/articles/34243204841997-...
The only feature they could think of was “battery level”? That’s hilarious