What does Humane’s AI Pin mean? It’s an attempt to make AI the interface.
Just imagine Jean-Luc Picard asking the Enterprise to compute the trajectory of an incoming enemy ship, only to be answered with “there’s an app for that.” While the proliferation of apps has been a massive and powerful shift in personal computing, the bigger shift is the machine just doing the things that we need done.
In other words, don’t install the GrubHub app. Get Siri to order food for you. Don’t install the Uber app. Get Google Assistant to handle it.
I recently wrote about this at Forbes:
Last week Humane unveiled an AI Pin you wear on your chest and summon when needed. At $700, the reaction to a screenless device with no apps and a $24/month subscription has been negative, even derogatory, and many pundits have predicted its failure. And yes, there’s a good chance it will flop, but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from it. Especially in the context of some insightful words Bill Gates recently shared.