When the Humane AI Pin launched in April it was totally panned by reviewers. So, it's no surprise that the $699 wearable AI device has seen near-immediate returns from dissatisfied customers according to a new report.
The Verge managed to uncover internal sales data, which shows that between May and August of this year more AI Pins were returned to Humane than purchased.
No product is going to sell well when some of the biggest tech reviewers trash it. In his now-infamous review, YouTuber Marques Brownlee called the pin "the worst product" he's ever reviewed. Engadget's Cherlynn Low wrote in her review, "not only is the Humane AI Pin slow, finicky and barely even smart, using it made me look pretty dumb."
The recalled charging case with potential to burst into flames definitely didn't help Humane's case, either.
In late May, it was reported that the Humane was looking to sell and somehow claimed a valuation between $750 million and $1 billion. No surprise to Tom's Guide Managing Editor of Computing Jason England who predicted that startups like Humane and Rabbit's goals were to be purchased by larger companies.
Mind you this was just after Humane switched their AI models to OpenAI's GPT-4o, a move that was more than likely too little too late.
HP was reportedly in the running to purchase the company, but that has not come to fruition. Meanwhile, The Information has reported that the company is negotiating with investors to raise their debt, which would be turned into equity.
Between all of that, somehow the AI Pin sold just over $9 million in accessories and devices according to the sales data. Apparently, more than 1,000 purchases were canceled before shipping and more than $1 million worth of product have been returned to Humane.
To date, about 10,000 AI Pins and accessories have been shipped out. A report from the New York Times in early June painted a picture of a company that was hoping to sell closer to 100,000 devices. Some back of the napkin math shows that somehow there are still 7,000 AI Pins floating around the world on people's lapels.
Apparently, Humane has no way of refurbishing or recycling the AI Pin, so they're just sitting on returned product because there is no way to reassign the devices to new users. This is being blamed on a T-Mobile limitation, which T-Mobile declined to comment on.
A Humane spokesperson told The Verge that there inaccuracies in the financial data they reported but declined to get into specifics or more directly refute the data.
According to their X profiles, both co-founders, Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno have claimed that the Humane team is hard at work patching up the software for the AI pin and adding improvements on a weekly basis.
A recent X-thread from Bongiorno outlined the addition of GPT-40, Google's Gemini, and improvments to translation, calendar recall and "music interstials".
From the outside, it's a company chugging along improving their device and providing more utility to customers, while internally this is a company that managed to finagle $200 million in investments yet lay off staff before the product launched, and has had a revolving door in the executive team.
An unnamed source told The Verge that the AI Pin received harsh feedback from early testers including from employee's friends and family with some saying the product failed to replicate demo videos. The device was launched despite that feedback.
Not to be outdone, the flawed Rabbit R1 that launched soon after AI Pin is going through its own issues. Just this month, 404 Media reported that the company refuses to take responsibility for its ongoing security breach issues blaming everyone from journalists and hacktivists to "malicious employees."
Perhaps AI necklaces like the AI companion Friend or the Limitless pendant will showcase the future of AI wearables, but Humane and Rabbit have a dumpster fire to put to in the meantime.
