Hello, it's tech editor Alexei Oreskovic here.
Whenever a hot new gadget appears on the scene, the first question to ask if you're trying to predict its chances of success is whether this new thing is so useful that people will decide to make it a new daily habit.
Are you really going to adjust your lifestyle so you can ride that cool-looking Peloton bike every day, or put on those Snapchat Spectacles?
When Humane finally revealed its Ai Pin wearable device on Thursday, I found myself asking the opposite question: Is this so essential that consumers will choose to eliminate a major daily habit?
The habit to be eliminated is our addiction to screen-based dopamine hits—the compulsive urge to scroll through video feeds, check for new messages, and count our likes. That's the whole point of Humane's new product. By using AI, speech recognition, and laser projection, the gadget does away with the screen and all its temptations.
It's a laudable goal. But I wonder if breaking our collective screen addiction is something consumers really want. By now, the smartphone, and the apps that have grown around it, have become so ingrained in our existence that it's hard to imagine life without them. And let's face it, we enjoy looking at silly TikTok videos and mindlessly scrolling through Twitter, or X, during meetings.
I haven't actually tried the Humane Ai Pin yet, and it's clear that its creators, former Apple employees, have the design bona fides to create the next big thing. My sense from what I've read is that the $699 clip-on device offers all the utility of our smartphones (messages, instant information retrieval, etc.) in a healthier format, but none of the "fun" stuff. It's dinner at a friend's house whose parents force you to eat your vegetables and who don't have even a crumb of junk food or dessert.
Habits, especially unhealthy ones, are hard to break. They burrow into our minds and attitudes, and even into our physical gestures. Consider this advice from the American Cancer Society for ex-smokers trying to fight a craving:
"If you miss the feeling of having a cigarette in your hand, hold something else – a pencil, a paper clip, a coin, or a marble, for example."
Is the world ready to quit our smartphone addiction cold turkey? Maybe Humane needs to include a rectangular slab of plastic for users to hold in their hands and help them forget about the smartphone.
Alexei Oreskovic
Want to send thoughts or suggestions to Data Sheet? Drop a line here.
Today’s edition was curated by David Meyer.
