Humane, Nearing Launch of Ai Pin, Is Gathering Steam

Humane, yesterday:

This partnership, as part of a strategic investment opportunity, will see SoftBank become the exclusive telecom provider for Ai Pin in Japan, leveraging SoftBank’s top-class services and compelling customer touchpoints to bring Ai Pin to a new market. SoftBank and Humane will also explore bringing CosmOS to other mobile devices and be working together on an app-less ecosystem of third-party services and AI-driven user experiences in Japan.

And in a separate announcement the day before:

Humane Inc and South Korea’s biggest mobile telecommunication company SK Telecom (SKT) today announced a Telco partnership for the Humane Ai Pin, the world’s first stand-alone Ai device and proprietary Ai-driven OS, CosmOS.

This partnership, as part of a strategic investment opportunity, will see SKT become the exclusive telecom provider for Ai Pin in South Korea, combining Humane’s groundbreaking AI technology with SKT’s expertise in advanced mobile networks, IoT, Cloud, AI, and 5G technologies. Alongside Ai Pin, both companies will explore licensing Humane’s CosmOS, creating an entirely new operating model between carriers and OEMs.

NeXT shipped their first workstations in 1989, but got out of the hardware business in 1993 and tried to make a go of just licensing their OS. Humane might be starting that same pivot two months before their first device ships.

Humane seemingly had a great Mobile World Congress (MWC) this week, winning awards, garnering crowds, and attracting media attention. Here’s a series of short videos from Humane’s Sam Sheffer showing off the entire kit of hardware.

I remain deeply skeptical of the form factor, but just like the Rabbit R1 — at this point, Humane’s only rival — I can’t wait to try it. Whether the form factor is the right idea or not, the Humane AI assistant sure as shit blows Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant out of the water.

★ Thursday, 29 February 2024