Humane, the startup behind the poorly reviewed AI Pin wearable computer, is already looking for a potential buyer for its business. Therefore A report from BloombergThe company, which is run by former Apple employees Imran Chaudhry and Bethany Bongiorno, says it is “seeking a valuation between $750 million and $1 billion.”
That might be a tough sell after the $699 AI Pin’s debut: the device was widely panned for slow responses and a user experience that fell far short of the always-on, wearable AI assistant concept its founders promised in the near future. until the release of the device. The product was introduced, at least in part, to get people more involved and reduce their ever-increasing dependence on smartphones.
Humane has developed its own operating system called CosmOS, which runs on AI Pin. It connects to a network of AI models to respond to voice requests and analyze what the built-in camera is pointing at. For some interactions, the device beams a laser “screen” that is projected onto the user’s inner palm. A monthly subscription is required to keep the device active.
It was humanitarian It is valued at 850 million dollars by investors in 2023, but that was before its first product was universally panned by reviewers. There are some new and clever ideas out there, but the AI Pin’s software is clumsy and not very responsive, and the hardware has shown poor battery life and overheating issues. Humane has promised to fix some of these bugs with software updates. Last week, it introduced OpenAI’s GPT-4o model to further enhance the device’s intelligent features.
The list of potential buyers for Humane seems pretty small given the price the startup hopes to fetch. Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft are making significant pushes into the AI space — big language models and generative AI are becoming more common by the day — but it’s unclear how much value Humane’s intellectual property will bring to any of them. ongoing efforts.