Author丨Bowen
Editor丨Sea waist
Title image丨Humane
The "iPhone in the age of AI" was scolded by its first users.
On April 12, humane, a high-profile AI star company in Silicon Valley, announced that the first screenless wearable device, Ai Pin, was officially on sale for the U.S. market, with a price of $699 and more than 5,000 yuan.
But in the past week, as the reviews of technology media and enthusiasts have come out one by one, this product has slowly begun to move from "rave reviews" to "mixed reviews".
There is even a faint trend of bad reviews.
Back last year, Ai Pin was selected as one of Time's "Best Inventions of 2023" when it only existed in promotional videos on its official website.
At MWC 2024 (Mobile World Congress) in February this year, humane employees pinned the gadget to their chests, manipulated the device to interact with their fingers, and hit the projection on the palm of their hands, which made a wave of limelight in the technology circles at home and abroad.
But now, a number of overseas technology media have all given bad reviews:
The Verge has a 4/10 rating for Ai Pin, saying that the only thing this thing can do is "tell the time"; WIRED BLUNTLY SAID THAT "TOO SIMPLE TO BE OF MUCH USE"; CNET didn't even want to use the word "review" because they felt that the product wasn't finished yet.
What's going on?
ChatGPT, which is worn on clothes, is full of anticipation before its debut
The concept of Ai Pin first appeared in a TED public talk on May 9, 2023.
At the time, Imran Chaudhri, the founder of Apple, who had left Apple for five years, pointed to the small device he wore on his chest and said:
"You can take an object and ask it (Ai Pin) questions about it, and you don't have to search around on your phone anymore...... The future will not be in your hands, let alone in your face. ”
In the 15-minute talk, Imran elaborated on his purpose in creating Ai Pin: to make the hardware another pair of eyes and another brain to perceive the world, so that the whole experience is screenless, seamless, and perceptible.
To put it bluntly: AI drives everything, kills all screens.
The talk was watched by more than 3 million people and was officially included in the list of "Most Popular TED Talks of 2023" by TED.
In November of that year, Humane released a product introduction video and said that the first products would go on sale in March 2024.
Through the demonstration video, we also have a complete and systematic understanding of Ai Pin——
The size of a matchbox in one hand, there is no screen, and the case is constructed only of a camera and a touch panel.
It is a stand-alone device that does not need to be connected to external devices such as mobile phones, nor does it involve any apps, and can be directly connected to the Internet to call various AI services and tools.
Through voice, touchpad, gestures, and projection, you can randomly open a topic and answer a question, search for specific information, translate the wearer's speech in real time, and recognize the current scene or object through the "eye" (camera) for further description and analysis.
In short, it's like a ChatGPT that can be worn on clothes.
In addition to purchasing the device itself, Humane has also partnered with T-Mobile, a U.S. carrier, to launch a $24 (about 173 yuan) monthly subscription service to support users with unlimited data to enjoy AI services.
Users who purchase Ai Pin before March 31 can get a 3-month free subscription, as well as free shipping.
This wasn't a very low price, and the subscription service behind it caused a small wave of skepticism at the time.
It didn't take long for Humane to announce that the first shipments of the Ai Pin would be delayed until mid-April.
At that time, it was reported that because it was a new form of product that needed to be stuffed with functional components such as voice and laser projection in a small body, Ai Pin was difficult to mass-produce.
Before the launch, Ai Pin was last seen at Mobile World Congress, which opens on February 26, 2024.
At humane's booth, the staff wore black sweatshirts and an Ai Pin printed with the company's logo to give public demonstrations and explanations.
Some foreign media call it "zero-distance indirect", because they can't directly try it out, they can only watch the display of the on-site staff.
Voice and touchpad are secondary, but when the content generated by the Ai Pin is projected into the user's palm through green light, and these contents follow the movements of the staff to pinch their fingers, clench their fists, and rotate their palms, turning pages, selecting, and confirming in real time, it really gives people a sense of the future of "grasping information at their fingertips".
Of course, there is no shortage of doubts, such as the "cancellation of third-party APP" is too big, such as the delay and heating problems in offline demonstrations.
However, a bounce ticket and a "zero-distance indirect" have been filled with a lot of expectations.
Finally, the first batch of users took Ai Pin in their hands one after another after April 12th.
It's just that the effect is eye-popping.
Not as good as a smart bracelet
First of all, it was the way it interacted that seemed amazing at the time.
First of all, the Ai Pin can interact with the hand – but only with the hand. This means that you can either listen to the voice broadcast, or you can only cast the screen in the palm of your hand.
Since the entire display is only the size of a palm, the gesture can only move within a certain range, so it is easy to mistouch or misselect as long as the movement is slightly larger or less standard.
Many testers have said that there is still a big learning threshold to achieve flawless micro-operations.
And such a complete set of knots is sealed, which also makes the operator embarrassed.
Inseparable from gesture interaction is the palm projection based on "laser ink display" technology - this is the second main function of Ai Pin that has been criticized, display.
Ai Pin's palm projection has several features:
First, the projection distance is relatively fixed.
This means that you have to keep your body and palm as still as possible, and keep your hands held in a fixed position to get the best look.
If your hand shakes in the middle of the process, the content of the projection will also shake back and forth.
Second, "adaptive".
To put it simply, people with large hands will display more content, and people with small hands will display less content. A male journalist from Engadget gave a specific number: 7 lines of text can be seen at a time, 1-3 words per line.
If you encounter a long text, with the gesture operating system that is difficult to print, the experience can be said to be extremely sour.
Third, "see the light and die".
Because the brightness of the Ai Pin laser projection is not enough to beat the sunlight, its display function cannot be used in bright outdoor areas, and some media also mentioned that the rainy weather in New York will also make him unable to see the projection in his hand.
Prior to the review, Ai Pin had only demonstrated publicly in darker environments such as the TED Talk stage and indoor conference booths. FOREIGN MEDIA ZDNET SAID SO.
Third, it claims to be the next generation of AI hardware after smartphones, but it is not smart enough.
At present, the Ai Pin device has a built-in GPT model, a self-developed AI system Cosmos, and a GPS system.
The AI Pin does not have a screen, and naturally there is no full-screen application, so users rely on the built-in GPT model, the self-developed AI system Cosmos, the GPS system, and the camera to perceive the world in real time, get answers and execute commands.
For example, check the weather, recommend parking lots, call friends, get travel advice, and more.
But in actual use, it is not so convenient.
In terms of the basic functions of AI, Ai Pin still answers incorrectly in many tentative questions, and the illusion problem is more obvious.
When recognizing objects through the camera, there are often cases of inability to recognize, misidentification, or "gibberish" combined with the hallucinations of large models.
And because of the de-screening of Ai Pin, it is also difficult for users to verify the credibility of the answer.
There is such an example in the evaluation of foreign media Wired: when identifying an unknown temple, Google Lens said that it was Thailand's Phrayana Hollow, and provided corresponding physical pictures, while Ai Pin said that it was Angkor Wat, Cambodia, but there was no more intuitive display.
This is even more evident in the absence of a viewfinder and the functionality of the camera itself, resulting in a very blurry final image.
Finally, in terms of response speed and heat, Ai Pin has also been complained about a lot.
Many reviews mention that the response time of the Ai Pin to a question is 3-5 seconds, and it is easy to cause fever after frequently using basic functions such as asking, taking photos, and recognizing objects.
All in all, Ai Pin does offer a lot of fresh and interesting gameplay, but it's not revolutionary enough to replace smartphones, or even smart bracelets.
Just like the foreign media Verge said:
"I don't see much of a future, but I do see a pretty cool little thing — just don't take it too seriously. It's just a gadget, not a way of life. ”
The connotation of the article issued by the team executives
In fact, the day after the Ai Pin was released, the official Humane account came out.
The responses were not faulty: thanks to the reviewers for their feedback, the reassurance that there was room for improvement, and a long list of features to be improved.
For example, the first version of the device "deliberately set a conservative thermal limit", so the system is more sensitive to temperature, and there will definitely be improvements in the future, for example, this summer will add voice timers, motion monitoring and other functions, and the basic AI functions will continue to iterate......
Source: Humane's official website
However, Ken Kocienda, head of product engineering at Humane, published a lengthy article saying that AI is changing at a much faster rate than it was seen on PCs decades ago, and that they built the Ai Pin with this historical perspective in mind.
Citing his own experience making the auto-correcting keyboard of the first-generation iPhone, he said that he also had considerable doubts about the concept of a touchscreen at the time.
But as time goes by, most people get used to this method of operation, and the keyboard slowly disappears.
And this "disappearance" is exactly what happened on Ai Pin.
In the middle of the article, the elder brother also secretly said that the current social media are too nitpicky and tend to make sharp remarks, and the sharper the better.
In fact, the media and netizens are almost one-sided bad reviews, which is certainly related to the quality of Ai Pin itself.
But the regret and regret in many evaluations are because the Humane team behind it was too dazzling before this.
Imran joined the Apple team during the return of Steve Jobs, an era of creative brilliance, working on the Aqua interface for OS X and the iPad, and was also the designer of Multi Touch, swipe unlock, and the owner of some patents.
During this time, he also met his most reliable partner and love, Bethany Bongiorno, director of software engineering on the iPad design team.
In 2016, the couple both left Apple to found Humane.
In an email to his Apple colleagues at the time, Imran mentioned that he felt his inspiration was drying up.
And to many Apple fans at the time, Imran's departure also seemed to be a symbol that Apple's era of innovation was gone.
It can be said that this is a company that has a higher starting point since its birth.
In 2023, Ai Pin will make its debut for the market, at a time when the trough of the smartphone boom meets the AI boom.
And OpenAI boss Altman, who is leading this AI boom, happens to be in the investment team of Humane's just received $100 million in financing.
In January 2024, Humane brought in another executive, former Apple Accessories Senior Engineering Manager Greg Nayman, as head of electrical engineering, and also underwent a team reshuffle.
In February, the company announced that it had reached a strategic partnership with SK Telecom, a South Korean operator, to enter the non-U.S. domestic market.
For a while, Humane was full of beauty.
However, their current product does not seem to be able to respond to the ambitions of their founders.
As the name Ai Pin explains, founder Bethany explains:
"Ai Pin's i is not capitalized, which shows that we are in the early stages of artificial intelligence. Obviously, Ai Pin still has a long way to go. ”