The tech startup Humane is seeking a buyer for its business, just a bit over a month since it released the AI Pin, according to Bloomberg. Engadget’s Cherlynn Low described the AI Pin as a “wearable Siri button,” because it’s a small device you can wear that was designed with a very specific purpose in mind: To give you ready access to an AI assistant. Humane is working with a financial adviser, Bloomberg said, and is apparently hoping to sell for anywhere between $750 million and $1 billion.
The company drummed up a lot of interest and successfully raised $230 million from high-profile investors. However, a billion may be a huge ask when its AI pin was mostly panned by critics upon launch. We gave the AI Pin a score of 50 out of 100 in our review due to several reasons. It was slow and took a few seconds to reply when we asked it questions. The responses were irrelevant at times and weren’t any better than what you could get with a quick Google search. Its touchpad grew warm with use, it had poor battery life and its projector screen, while novel, was pretty hard to control. The Humane AI Pin also isn’t cheap: It costs $700 to buy and requires a monthly fee of $24 to access the company’s artificial intelligence technology and 4G service riding on T-Mobile’s network. In a post on its website, Humane said that it was listening to feedback and listed several problem areas it intends to focus on.
Another dedicated AI gadget, the Rabbit R1, is much more affordable at $199, but it’s still not cheap enough to make the category more popular than it is, especially since you could easily take out your phone to use AI tools when needed. Humane’s efforts to sell its business is still in its very early stages, Bloomberg noted, and it might not close a deal at all.