Humane shows off its wearable AI pin at Paris Fashion Week

AppleInsider

Humane has quietly teased its forthcoming AI Pin at Coperni's Parish fashion show, and will unveil it fully on November 9, 2023.

The white version of the Humane Ai Pin being worn in Parish Fashion Week (source: Humane)

For more than five years, Humane was the firm founded by ex-Apple executives that was definitely going to make something big, some day. Then for the start of what has become teasingly slow rollout, Humane revealed that it was making a new wearable that looks like the communicator badges in "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

In July 2023, the company announced that the device would be called the Humane Ai Pin. Despite one short demo which revealed some of its functions without really revealing its form, the device has remained a mystery.

However, black and white versions of the Humane Ai Pin has now been seen worn by models from the Paris-based fashion house Coperni, at their 2024 Spring Summer show at Paris Fashion Week.

"We have been admirers of Arnaud and Sebastien at Coperni for some time and our shared passion for the union of design, creativity and technology is at the heart of this collaboration," said Humane co-founders Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, Humane's founders in a statement.

"Our relationship with technology is changing profoundly, becoming even more personal as our devices morph into extensions of our bodies, minds and hearts," they continued. "We're excited to show the full capabilities of the device which we believe will usher in a new paradigm of ambient, AI-driven computing on November 9."

Humane describes the device as a "screenless, standalone device and software platform built from the ground up for AI." While not saying whether wearers need to tap the device and only then say things like "Picard to Enterprise," the company does say that there is no wake word "and therefore no 'always on' listening."

Humane has also repeated that the Pin doesn't need to be paired to a smartphone, and that it is powered by an unspecified Snapdragon processor by Qualcomm.

It's not known whether the November 9 unveiling will be an actual launch of the product. However, Humane has a "priority access" waitlist for people to be alerted when the device does go on sale.

Co-founders Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno met while working together on the iPad at Apple. Bongiorno was a director of software engineering, and Chaudhri a designer who was involved in developing OS X with Steve Jobs.

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williamh

My first reaction is that those people are full of themselves and this will be something that I do not like at all.  However, I am not so stubborn that I will refuse to be surprised and delighted.  I just don't think that will happen.

If it works how I think it will, we will soon have another term like "Glasshole" was used for Google Glass users to describe the users of this device.

gatorguy

williamh said:

My first reaction is that those people are full of themselves and this will be something that I do not like at all.  However, I am not so stubborn that I will refuse to be surprised and delighted.  I just don't think that will happen.

If it works how I think it will, we will soon have another term like "Glasshole" was used for Google Glass users to describe the users of this device.

If a head or body-worn AI device with a camera comes from Apple, will you still have the same "Glasshole" opinion?

edited October 2023

auxio

gatorguy said:

williamh said:

My first reaction is that those people are full of themselves and this will be something that I do not like at all.  However, I am not so stubborn that I will refuse to be surprised and delighted.  I just don't think that will happen.

If it works how I think it will, we will soon have another term like "Glasshole" was used for Google Glass users to describe the users of this device.

If a head or body-worn AI device with a camera comes from Apple, will you still have the same "Glasshole" opinion?

As long as it's truly "privacy first" as he states. That was a big part of the stigma with Google Glass: what's happening to all of the audio and video being captured by it? Especially given that it was created by a company whose bottom line depends on knowing everything about you.

With devices like this in the works, I think that we really need laws that force companies to be open and honest about all of the data they collect about us, and exactly what it's being used for. Google has definitely become more transparent about it in the past 10 years, but only because people (and governments) have become more aware of it and demanded it. And the default behaviour still tends to be "opt out" rather than "opt in".

sflagel

It does not appear that this device could do anything that a Smartwatch couldn't do, but there are a lot of things a Smartwatch can do that this can't.
(maybe take photos, but that's it; and I do hope that the Apple Watch will be able to take pics one day, even low res or just QR codes).

gatorguy

auxio said:

gatorguy said:

williamh said:

My first reaction is that those people are full of themselves and this will be something that I do not like at all.  However, I am not so stubborn that I will refuse to be surprised and delighted.  I just don't think that will happen.

If it works how I think it will, we will soon have another term like "Glasshole" was used for Google Glass users to describe the users of this device.

If a head or body-worn AI device with a camera comes from Apple, will you still have the same "Glasshole" opinion?

As long as it's truly "privacy first" as he states. That was a big part of the stigma with Google Glass: what's happening to all of the audio and video being captured by it? Especially given that it was created by a company whose bottom line depends on knowing everything about you.

With devices like this in the works, I think that we really need laws that force companies to be open and honest about all of the data they collect about us, and exactly what it's being used for. Google has definitely become more transparent about it in the past 10 years, but only because people (and governments) have become more aware of it and demanded it. And the default behaviour still tends to be "opt out" rather than "opt in".

In the past two years, give or take, Google has generally been going with OPT-IN on privacy-related toggles, so they've seen the light. In fact I can't think of any personal data collection that's automatically taken without the user's OK beforehand, which does not mean to claim there aren't any but I don't believe there are. A prime example of Google's change in attitude is their Google Cloud Backup privacy-forward E2EE for Android phones which is on by default, and requires the user to actively tell Google they don't want their cloud backups encrypted. That's opposed to Apple requiring users opt-in for it as the default is off. 

In any event, at least the bigger players do seem to be more transparent than they were a decade ago, and offer much clearer explanations of the how's, why's, and what's when putting privacy toggles in front of the user for a more informed choice. Apple has long been good about it, and yeah it's taken Apple and a few eyeballs from authorities to push Google down that same path, but today I'd say they both are pretty good about asking.

The bigger issue for me is the significant growth in "other" trackers and data aggregators over the last several years. Every time I go into Ghostery, which is regularly, there's dozens of new ones popping up. Those smaller ones tend to fly under the radar, but put a couple dozen together and there are massive files being collected on all of us, and worse than that, much of it is for sale. Literally for sale. 

I fully expect Humane's product not to be one of those bad guys, and totally upfront about what they gather, and what they use it for, offering privacy toggles to those uncomfortable with bits and parts of it. Personally, I'm intrigued by the Humane AI pin. 

edited October 2023

williamh

gatorguy said:

auxio said:

gatorguy said:

williamh said:

My first reaction is that those people are full of themselves and this will be something that I do not like at all.  However, I am not so stubborn that I will refuse to be surprised and delighted.  I just don't think that will happen.

If it works how I think it will, we will soon have another term like "Glasshole" was used for Google Glass users to describe the users of this device.

If a head or body-worn AI device with a camera comes from Apple, will you still have the same "Glasshole" opinion?

As long as it's truly "privacy first" as he states. That was a big part of the stigma with Google Glass: what's happening to all of the audio and video being captured by it? Especially given that it was created by a company whose bottom line depends on knowing everything about you.

With devices like this in the works, I think that we really need laws that force companies to be open and honest about all of the data they collect about us, and exactly what it's being used for. Google has definitely become more transparent about it in the past 10 years, but only because people (and governments) have become more aware of it and demanded it. And the default behaviour still tends to be "opt out" rather than "opt in".

In the past two years, give or take, Google has generally been going with OPT-IN on privacy-related toggles, so they've seen the light. In fact I can't think of any personal data collection that's automatically taken without the user's OK beforehand, which does not mean to claim there aren't any but I don't believe there are. A prime example of Google's change in attitude is their Google Cloud Backup privacy-forward E2EE for Android phones which is on by default, and requires the user to actively tell Google they don't want their cloud backups encrypted. That's opposed to Apple requiring users opt-in for it as the default is off. 

In any event, at least the bigger players do seem to be more transparent than they were a decade ago, and offer much clearer explanations of the how's, why's, and what's when putting privacy toggles in front of the user for a more informed choice. Apple has long been good about it, and yeah it's taken Apple and a few eyeballs from authorities to push Google down that same path, but today I'd say they both are pretty good about asking.

The bigger issue for me is the significant growth in "other" trackers and data aggregators over the last several years. Every time I go into Ghostery, which is regularly, there's dozens of new ones popping up. Those smaller ones tend to fly under the radar, but put a couple dozen together and there are massive files being collected on all of us, and worse than that, much of it is for sale. Literally for sale. 

I fully expect Humane's product not to be one of those bad guys, and totally upfront about what they gather, and what they use it for, offering privacy toggles to those uncomfortable with bits and parts of it. Personally, I'm intrigued by the Humane AI pin. 

Those are some good thoughts and as for that Humane part, I don't know how they will do it but hope you are right.  A problem with Google Glass and a potential problem with this is that the owner could choose their privacy settings but the people in front of the camera don't get that choice.  I think with Google Glass it was hard or impossible to know if you were recorded.  We will learn more about this soon enough.  

filemakerfeller

Seems like the opening stanza of War of the Worlds is applicable - but with personal electronic devices doing the watching.

chasm

I think it is 100 percent okay for other companies to make what seems to essentially be a portable Siri-like AI assistant with the twist of a tiny laser projector to show you results as needed on the palm of your hand. The fact that the Apple Watch does most of this and more doesn't mean something not-entirely-dissimilar shouldn't be allowed to exist.

Humane's AI Pin reminds me of the first "wearable" -- Apple's clip-on iPod Nano. It looks pretty nice, and it is pretty clearly aimed at the same market that bought the very high-end Apple Watches, i.e. people who can afford them. We'll see what the price is for this pin.

I personally think it's kinda nice to see ex-Apple people pursuing their own dream and hoping to find a place in the market. Nothing wrong with that.

At least this thing doesn't have a camera and mic and do continuous recording without asking people's permission, a la Google Glass ... oh but they've seen the light doncha know!  

mattinoz

What is the weight of this device?
I'd think it would need to limited and need to be careful about how it attaches or would risk damaging many common fabrics (and importantly the less robust but more common fabric at a fashion week)

gatorguy

chasm said:

I think it is 100 percent okay for other companies to make what seems to essentially be a portable Siri-like AI assistant with the twist of a tiny laser projector to show you results as needed on the palm of your hand. The fact that the Apple Watch does most of this and more doesn't mean something not-entirely-dissimilar shouldn't be allowed to exist.

Humane's AI Pin reminds me of the first "wearable" -- Apple's clip-on iPod Nano. It looks pretty nice, and it is pretty clearly aimed at the same market that bought the very high-end Apple Watches, i.e. people who can afford them. We'll see what the price is for this pin.

I personally think it's kinda nice to see ex-Apple people pursuing their own dream and hoping to find a place in the market. Nothing wrong with that.

At least this thing doesn't have a camera and mic and do continuous recording without asking people's permission, a la Google Glass ... oh but they've seen the light doncha know!  

Ooooh, now that you raised that point...

Did you know the Vision Pro can record videos of the folks around you, upload them to use for who-knows-what purposes, and for up to 1.5 hours continuously, no advance permission from anyone whose image was recorded required? Whether it is a body-worn recording-capable device from Google or Apple or RayBan, et.al, is it still a bad privacy problem the Humane solves with its lack of a camera? 

edited October 2023

omasou

I'm amazed! An Apple Watch Ultra form factor pinned to the chest. So innovative! /s

This is going to be such a huge fail.

ravnorodom

This thing looks so big and thick even by today's standard. If it's the size of regular small pin like those in James Bond movies, then, we are talking.