Humane slashes the price of its AI Pin after weak sales (www.theverge.com)
from Moonrise2473@feddit.it to technology@beehaw.org on 24 Oct 12:12
https://feddit.it/post/11880207

They can’t sell the $699 AI party trick that requires a $24 subscription so they slashed the price to $499. Unfortunately it’s still $500 too expensive for what’s worth.

Maybe at $10 someone could buy it as a Halloween costume prop and even pay a whole month of subscription just to show off the novelty

#technology

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overload@sopuli.xyz on 24 Oct 12:39 next collapse

At what price point would this device be useful? Seems like the sort of device that was made to allow the company to be bought by Google/Microsoft/Meta.

noodlejetski@lemm.ee on 24 Oct 12:54 next collapse

At what price point would this device be useful?

given that it’s horribly bad at what it claims to do and was a fire risk? not even a zero point.

luciole@beehaw.org on 24 Oct 13:00 collapse

I’d need to be paid a non negligible amount to try and wring some speck of usefulness out of this thing.

JCPhoenix@beehaw.org on 24 Oct 17:48 collapse

Yeah that’d be cool if the opened it up and recreate it as a platform for people to mess around with it. Like a rPi or Arduino or something. Because in it’s current form…pretty much useless. But you’re right; they’d have to drop that price point significantly and incentivize people even if it were open.

Moonrise2473@feddit.it on 25 Oct 05:13 collapse

Unfortunately the hardware is so closed that even themselves can’t reset the software for refurbishing

theverge.com/…/humane-ai-pin-more-daily-returns-t…

Once a Humane Pin is returned, the company has no way to refurbish it, sources with knowledge of the return process confirmed. The Pin becomes e-waste, and Humane doesn’t have the opportunity to reclaim the revenue by selling it again.

JCPhoenix@beehaw.org on 26 Oct 03:25 collapse

Jfc. Can’t, or rather won’t, refurbish? That’s beyond stupid.

Moonrise2473@feddit.it on 27 Oct 07:22 collapse

Maybe they really believed that this shit was so good that nobody would ever return or even sell it to third parties in the future

lichtmetzger@discuss.tchncs.de on 25 Oct 01:46 collapse

It’ll probably be a brick in a few months, when the company goes bankrupt and the servers it relies on get shut down. So even getting it for free would be too expensive.

DavidGarcia@feddit.nl on 24 Oct 14:37 next collapse

Maybe if they make a watch with a camera cover and a laser that draws a little box around what it can see and it all runs locally, then I might be interested.

Mainly to identify plants and mushrooms.

Not a fan of the idea of everyone pointing AI powered cameras at me all the time, like with this weird pin or smart glasses.

Such products should have a legally mandated camera cover, microphone shutoff and a REALLY OBVIOUS tell to everyone around you if you are using the camera or mic.

Bonus points if it screams a really loud “PERVERT” alarm if you’re doing something creepy.

If only that was true for smartphones too…

LukeZaz@beehaw.org on 24 Oct 18:06 collapse

Mainly to identify plants and mushrooms.

Considering modern-day “AI” track records at this, the only thing I’d trust a device like that to do is massively increase poisoning deaths.

Powderhorn@beehaw.org on 24 Oct 19:13 collapse

“But my phone said it would be OK” is a lousy epitaph!

Ava@beehaw.org on 26 Oct 12:06 collapse

They died doing what they loved. Placing their very life into the hands of techbro con artists.

c0smokram3r@midwest.social on 24 Oct 14:55 next collapse

This is still a thing?

TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip on 24 Oct 22:40 collapse

It’s probably going to be a rare collectible in about 50 years. Right now, it’s a high risk investment.

DdCno1@beehaw.org on 24 Oct 15:57 next collapse

Bit late, isn’t it? I had already forgotten all about it and I don’t think I’m the only one.

Jagothaciv@kbin.earth on 24 Oct 16:57 next collapse

Tech tryna make Star Trek happen when we are still living in Threads (movie).

4grams@awful.systems on 24 Oct 17:14 next collapse

I’d try one for $29.99, that’s about it though.

Toribor@corndog.social on 24 Oct 23:02 collapse

If it was free and I just had to pay the subscription I’d think “Can’t my phone already do all this?”

Moonrise2473@feddit.it on 25 Oct 05:09 collapse

You phone doesn’t have the low-res laser projector gimmick that is invisible in daylight, runs extremely hot and drains the battery in one hour

4grams@awful.systems on 25 Oct 13:25 collapse

truth be told, the only reason I would be even remotely interested in the device is the stupid laser projector. Seems like that might be fun to play with.

DdCno1@beehaw.org on 26 Oct 13:03 collapse

Yes! I remember experiments with similar projectors and interfaces like this device going back at least as far as the early 2010s. Would be fun to mess with.

ShellMonkey@lemmy.socdojo.com on 24 Oct 18:09 next collapse

I’ve never heard of this thing, is it supposed to do what the analyze this picture or ID the song playing features of my phone already could do, or is there something novel I’m missing?

bl4kers@beehaw.org on 25 Oct 04:26 collapse

The sell is a screenless phone with an AI assistant

ShellMonkey@lemmy.socdojo.com on 25 Oct 12:54 collapse

So pretty much one of those smart speaker things with a pin on it, for hundreds of $$$ and a subscription to boot? What a great idea…

[deleted] on 24 Oct 19:17 collapse

.

hazelnoot@beehaw.org on 25 Oct 00:55 collapse

what