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00:00All right, so this is the Humane AI Pen.
00:05It is a brand new product
00:07and a really, really interesting form factor
00:10of an ultra futuristic wearable computer.
00:15So in a time of all these crazy gadgets
00:17and Vision Pro and wearable glasses,
00:19it's so sick that we get so many genuinely new
00:21first generation products like this to give a shot.
00:24Unfortunately, it's also the new worst product
00:28I think I've ever reviewed in its current state.
00:32There's just so many things bad about it.
00:36It's so bad, in fact,
00:37that I think it's actually kind of distracting
00:39to understand what the point of the device is
00:41as we go through it.
00:42So I'm gonna have to separate it out for this video.
00:44First, I'm gonna tell you what it is
00:47and what it's supposed to do.
00:49And then I'll tell you what my experience
00:53has actually been using it.
00:55So this thing is a small wearable computer
01:03with an AI inside that can help you throughout your day.
01:06It's about the size of a large watch.
01:08It has a camera and a microphone
01:10and can interact with the world around you.
01:12But in case you can't use that as input,
01:14there's also a touch pad and a projector inside
01:18with this super new style of gesture control
01:22with the projection on your hand.
01:23It costs $700 plus a $24 a month subscription plan
01:30for the data that comes with it
01:32and all the services and all the online storage.
01:35But yeah, $700 plus a subscription.
01:40It's already a fun start.
01:41So one of the big things off the top
01:42is this does not pair to your smartphone at all.
01:46This is its own standalone device
01:48with its own internet connection,
01:50with its own phone number.
01:52And so this little AI assistant
01:54just goes everywhere with you.
01:56It's always connected and that's,
01:58you can choose how much or how little to use it
02:00alongside your smartphone.
02:02So, you know, on its face,
02:03maybe that's kind of a cool idea at least.
02:06Like the idea is you talk to it like a person.
02:08It answers questions.
02:09It gives you historical facts or personalized recommendations
02:13or helps you out with things like brainstorming
02:15or remembering things.
02:16It can make phone calls and send text messages,
02:20a ton of stuff.
02:20The unfortunate reality though
02:22is this thing is too much of a pain to use
02:24to actually want to do most of that stuff
02:27alongside your phone, but we'll get there.
02:30All right, let me actually start with the hardware.
02:37This little thing, the build of this thing
02:40is actually impressive.
02:41Like genuinely, I think if you're looking for a reason
02:43to feel like you're not getting ripped off,
02:46the hardware packaging actually kind of accomplishes that.
02:49Like this pin is solid.
02:51It's aluminum.
02:52It's dense feeling.
02:53There's three colors actually.
02:55There's all matte black, which is the cheapest one,
02:57or for a hundred bucks more,
02:58you can get white or this black and silver one
03:01that I'm using.
03:02And then there's a lot of sensors packed up there.
03:04There's a camera, there's microphones, there's lights.
03:06There's a tiny class two laser projector.
03:09So this whole thing is like really densely packed.
03:12And then the magnets also that connect everything
03:15are super strong.
03:16So the back of this pin is called a booster.
03:20It's another battery.
03:21So it's got its own internal battery,
03:23but then once you attach it to your clothes,
03:25it cleverly through your clothes magnetizes there,
03:28makes a nice sound when you do,
03:30and that's how you get it attached.
03:31So you get two of these boosters.
03:32And since there's the internal battery,
03:34you can literally hot swap between them
03:36so the thing stays alive.
03:37Very clever.
03:38And then it also comes with this extremely well-made
03:41and also a very, very reflective charging case.
03:45So you can pop it in there or just your battery in there,
03:47keep it topped off.
03:48That charges via USB type C.
03:50This thing is nice.
03:51And it also comes with this like desktop charging puck
03:53where you can magnetize in the battery or the whole thing,
03:56the pin and the booster at the same time.
03:58So that is a lot of charging and battery related accessories,
04:02but they all come with it.
04:03And this pin, you know,
04:04it's also got these lights up at the top here
04:06that light up anytime you're doing anything.
04:08And there's also a small pin light notification
04:10for when there's something waiting for you.
04:12So between the weight of the parts
04:13and the strength of the magnets,
04:14how it all slaps together,
04:16like you can tell that a lot of effort
04:17was put into the craftsmanship of this product,
04:20which I very much appreciate.
04:22It's the best part of the pin by a lot.
04:27Okay, I want you to forget about the smartphone
04:35in your pocket for a second.
04:36Just for a minute, just pretend that doesn't exist.
04:38Ignore it, right?
04:39This little pin can do a lot of stuff and is very helpful.
04:44So again, think of this thing as an AI assistant
04:47that's like by your side all the time with you.
04:49So you can ask it things.
04:51It doesn't have a wake word.
04:52It only turns the mic on and listens when you touch it.
04:54So you can go, how tall is the Empire State Building?
04:59And then when you let go,
05:00it starts sending that query off to the crowd.
05:02The Empire State Building is 1,454 feet tall to the tip.
05:08The cloud, and it gets you an answer, which is great.
05:11And it also is multimodal.
05:12So that means it can look at the camera
05:14and see things and interact with the world around you.
05:17So look and tell me what you see.
05:21So it'll scan the room, use the cloud again.
05:24That little noise was it taking a little image,
05:26sending an image to the cloud, analyzing it,
05:29getting it back, then deciding what to tell me.
05:32You are sitting in front of a camera and a laptop.
05:35The camera is on a tripod and pointed at you.
05:37The laptop is open and you are looking at it.
05:40There are three pictures of dogs on the wall behind you.
05:43There is a window to the left of the camera.
05:45There is a boom mic on the table in front of you.
05:48There is a red carpet on the floor.
05:52Great.
05:53The camera can also take pictures
05:54or up to 15 second videos,
05:56which it auto uploads while charging.
05:58It can also remember things you tell it to remember.
06:00And all of these things will show up in the Humane Center.
06:03So it's like this online web portal
06:05for all things connected to the pin.
06:07There's no app, it's just the website.
06:09So there you can see a whole history
06:10of who you've called and texted and what you've listened to
06:13and what answers it gave to your most recent requests
06:16and all the things you told it to remember.
06:18It is pretty well-rounded.
06:19I think probably it's best tech demo feature though
06:21is the translate back and forth.
06:23You got a two finger gesture.
06:24You can go.
06:26Donde esta la biblioteca?
06:30Where's the library?
06:31So it auto detects the language, translates it to English
06:34and the person who speaks back can translate back
06:36as long as you hold down the pin and listen to them.
06:38Pretty cool.
06:39This is all voice stuff though.
06:40So if at any point you're in a loud area
06:42or a very private area
06:43and you don't wanna interact out loud with your voice,
06:46that's where this projector comes in.
06:49So it seems crazy, but you activate it like that
06:52and then you just hold your finger out, your whole palm
06:55and it becomes a projector screen
06:57for the laser projector built into the pin.
07:00So it takes a little practice,
07:01but eventually you get used to holding your hand up
07:03in just the right spot.
07:04And then the UI gets projected
07:06in this green 720p mini screen on your hand.
07:10So you basically use your hand.
07:13Try to be as flat as possible
07:14and then to interact with it,
07:15there are some movement gestures.
07:17So there's a time of flight sensor
07:18that keeps track of movement
07:20and you move your hand around
07:21kind of like rolling a marble around in your hand
07:24to select something, then pinch to select.
07:27You can then make a fist to go back
07:29and then you literally push forward
07:31to move deeper into a menu.
07:33So this is like a 3D UI you have to learn.
07:36This is obviously very brand new for people,
07:38but I think to be fair, it is pretty intuitive.
07:41I think if you get a quick 60 second lesson,
07:44you kind of already have learned all the things you need.
07:47When you first connect the booster to the pin,
07:49you can unlock it and unlocking it with my pin
07:52is like this move your hand through space
07:56to select the numbers thing.
07:57It's literally like moving back and forth
07:59through a Rolodex of real numbers.
08:01So it's one of those like borderline magic things
08:04where the first time you see it,
08:05you kind of just get it and it clicks.
08:07Even if it is a little fidgety
08:09and a little bit inaccurate and kind of slow,
08:12but that gets us into the review.
08:21So unfortunately, this thing is bad at almost everything
08:28it does basically all the time.
08:30Where do I even start?
08:31So I guess, first of all, okay,
08:32it's supposed to just answer questions, right?
08:34It can kind of do that sometimes,
08:36but one, it's often slow
08:38because most of these requests go to the cloud
08:40and come back and there's just a long wait.
08:41And two, it's often wrong because AI still can hallucinate
08:46and there are still issues with it
08:47just not understanding correctly
08:48or just saying the wrong thing.
08:49And that's not even mentioning server timeouts
08:51if you have a poor internet connection,
08:53which happens to me all the time in this studio.
08:55So when they do most of the demos
08:56like on their websites and in their videos,
08:58they'll ask a question and then they'll let go
09:00and keep talking to fill the silence.
09:02So it's not awkward as you wait for an answer
09:03and realize how long it is.
09:05But even on this fast studio Wi-Fi here,
09:09who designed the Washington Monument?
09:16Finding designer.
09:19The Washington Monument was designed by Robert Mills,
09:22a prominent 19th century American architect
09:25from South Carolina.
09:26The construction was eventually completed by Thomas.
09:30So you can just hold your hand up
09:32to put your answer on your hand
09:33and interrupt that it's talking so much.
09:35But even that was like a pretty good performance
09:38for the AI pin in ideal fast Wi-Fi conditions.
09:42But there are many, many times
09:44when I feel like it's way slower
09:46and it seems like it goes to the internet
09:48for almost everything.
09:49I mean, there's a few queries I guess might be local,
09:53like what time is it?
09:561142 AM.
09:58Like that's pretty fast.
09:59If I asked the battery life,
10:00it can tell me that pretty fast,
10:01but it feels like basically everything else
10:02is just shoveling it off to the cloud,
10:04not competing on the device.
10:06And it takes a while.
10:07But it's also just wrong all the time.
10:09Like I remember asking it days before the solar eclipse
10:12when the next eclipse was,
10:14and it said 2044.
10:16I asked it, what's some good Asian food in the area?
10:18And over and over again,
10:20it thought I said, what's the best ash for some reason?
10:24When is the next Nets game?
10:30Finding next Nets game.
10:31The next Brooklyn Nets game is on Sunday, April 14th,
10:35but no specific opponent or location is provided.
10:38I just Googled it.
10:39It says it's the 76ers.
10:40So that's kind of weird.
10:42What's the traffic to the Empire State Building from here?
10:50Finding directions.
10:51Use the voice command feature of AI pin
10:53to ask for traffic information to the Empire State Building,
10:57and it will provide you with the details you need.
11:00I did?
11:01This stuff happens all the time.
11:04But then speaking of battery life,
11:06really bad and inconsistent, which is annoying.
11:10So it's already kind of bad enough
11:12that you have another device
11:13that you also have to charge every single day.
11:16But with this, it's actually more than that.
11:18You have to constantly babysit the battery
11:21and swap out boosters and charge this thing
11:24and keep it charged multiple times per day.
11:27So like I said before,
11:27you get two of these things that come with it.
11:31And I've had a pin nuke through the entire booster battery
11:35in two hours while not really doing much of anything.
11:40I've also had it last like four hours
11:42while doing a whole bunch of photos and videos
11:44and requests and laser stuff.
11:47And it's also just like constantly warm the whole time,
11:52just all the time, which is a little bit concerning.
11:55I'll also say multiple times in various situations,
11:57I've had it just overheat for seemingly no reason
12:01and tell me to wait a while for it to cool down.
12:03I think the heat problem is also amplified
12:05because of the gap created by whatever fabric
12:09is between the booster and the product
12:11that it is actively inductively charging.
12:14You know, it is a lot of very impressive engineering,
12:15but wireless charging is notoriously inefficient
12:18and loses energy via heat.
12:20And that's what's happening in here all the time.
12:23So just the fact that it's warm,
12:25just this warm puck on my chest all day
12:27was just enough to never quite forget that I'm wearing it.
12:31Well, that and the weight.
12:33Look, it's well-made.
12:35Like I said, it's really impressive hardware,
12:37but it's just a little, I mean, you see that little sag?
12:40It's just a little too heavy.
12:43In the same way that Vision Pro is just a bit too heavy,
12:46when you're wearing the thing,
12:49you just wanna make it as light as possible.
12:51It's why a lot of this stuff is made of plastic.
12:53So when you decide to go aluminum instead,
12:56yeah, it's just a little too heavy.
12:58I feel like Humane in a lot of their videos,
12:59they've got all these thick fabrics and like heavy jackets.
13:02So it doesn't really pull down and sag nearly as much.
13:05But if you wear some lighter weight materials like I do,
13:08especially when it gets warm outside,
13:10this is really gonna start to be noticed.
13:12And yes, there are some optional accessories
13:13that are lighter weight,
13:14but you never quite forget about it.
13:16This pin cannot set a timer.
13:18This pin cannot set an alarm.
13:21This notification light they put up at the corner here,
13:24it's there and it works,
13:25but it is basically out of my peripheral, my field of view.
13:28So I almost never see it.
13:30And they also chose this corner for the light,
13:33which means it's designed to be worn
13:34on this half of the body,
13:35which is fine and you get used to it there,
13:37but that's also exactly where most seatbelts go
13:40in the US anyway.
13:41So not their fault,
13:42just another annoying thing about using it.
13:44The photos look pretty bad and the videos look even worse.
13:49They're squarish in aspect ratio, very noisy,
13:52and they max out at 15 seconds.
13:55The hub that everything syncs with,
13:57for me just randomly stops working
13:59and I have to refresh it to get it to work again.
14:02The projector, as impressive as a technical achievement
14:05as it is, it's just not very readable.
14:09It's not particularly bright outdoors
14:11and it gets dimmer the further from your hand it is
14:14because of physics.
14:15And unless I knew what those words were saying,
14:17I really can't read very much.
14:19And there are no apps.
14:24There just are no apps.
14:25So when you first sign up with your Humane account,
14:28you get to sync with four accounts.
14:31There are your Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Tidal.
14:34So the first three are basically for your contacts.
14:37And then the last one,
14:38Tidal is the exclusive music partner.
14:41So there is no Uber access.
14:44There is no Spotify access.
14:47There's no WhatsApp.
14:48There's no calendar, no Gmail, none of that stuff.
14:51It's just, it doesn't have, I can't book a flight.
14:54I can't buy something on Amazon.
14:55It just will not do any of that stuff
14:58that I just do on my phone.
15:01So I know I've said like a bunch of the downsides
15:09and the problems this device has,
15:10but I really genuinely think the biggest problem
15:13this pin is going to have
15:15is that smartphones are kind of OP.
15:19Like that's the number one thing I've reminded myself
15:22from the week of using this pin,
15:24trying to get it to do stuff
15:25is that smartphones are not going anywhere anytime soon.
15:28And I think a lot of the comments online
15:30have already picked up on this,
15:31even without testing and using the pin, which is,
15:34okay, there seems like a lot of overlap
15:35between what this is and what a smartphone can do.
15:40But everything that this pin does,
15:44a modern smartphone does better and faster and easier
15:49and in higher quality and just better in every way.
15:51Like your smartphone obviously takes better pictures
15:54and videos and you can frame things more easily.
15:56Of course, a phone can call and text people more easily.
16:00You can use it in more places, loud places, private places,
16:04use it with literally any outfit.
16:07Also a phone, like you can quickly Google things.
16:09It's faster to message people back.
16:11And of course it can email people
16:13and use all kinds of app experiences.
16:15Do you know what happens when you try to just
16:18send someone a picture from the AI pin?
16:21You already know how to do it on your phone.
16:23With the AI pin, okay, you take the picture.
16:26Then you either try this with your voice
16:27or you pull up the picture,
16:29which is just a green 720p JPEG on your hand.
16:34I guess that's a good enough preview, sure.
16:36You go to send it, you pick your contact
16:39or type in the whole phone number with the gestures.
16:43Eventually you go to send
16:45and it has its own internet connection
16:47and it sends a link to view the picture
16:51in the Humane web portal.
16:53Like the difference in how easy,
16:56how frictionless that is here versus here,
16:59it's not even close.
17:00And there are honestly many times
17:01where I'd be trusting this pin.
17:03Like I'm reviewing it, I'm living that life,
17:05I'm using it and I'd ask it something
17:06and I would wait so long
17:08and my phone would just be sitting right there
17:10where I could just pick it up and Google the answer
17:12in the time it takes me to get
17:14hopefully the right answer on the pin.
17:15It's just, phones are OP.
17:19Look and tell me what this is.
17:31Or I'll just do this, I guess.
17:34Ah, it's a Cybertruck.
17:37This photo is of a Cybertruck,
17:39an electric pickup truck produced by Tesla.
17:44Yep, also I gotta say, when I say phones are OP,
17:48like screens in your hand, so sick.
17:52Just for the last like 10% of any UI,
17:55like you can get almost all the way there
17:57with just your voice interaction,
17:58but let's say you call an Uber
18:01and you say, take me to the studio from an Uber,
18:03even if it could do that, which it can't,
18:05but let's say it could.
18:08And as you're waiting, you're like,
18:08I'm gonna just go grab a snack
18:09from this Starbucks on the corner.
18:11How do you adjust your pickup location with this?
18:18Just that friction of I could just do it
18:20in two seconds on my phone.
18:21Or buying something online is another one.
18:23I've seen a lot of demos where someone's like,
18:25plan me a trip to Europe, plan me an expedition.
18:28I don't even wanna buy detergent online on this
18:31because I need to check all the ratings and the titles
18:33and make sure I'm ordering the right one.
18:35I do not trust that with just my voice.
18:37But I think most critically for the AI assistant part,
18:41I actually love the idea of a virtual assistant
18:44that you can talk to like a human.
18:46Like this is something we've been chasing for years
18:49with Google Assistant and Siri and Alexa.
18:52And now with this new form factor of a little AI in a box
18:56that can be with you everywhere,
18:58maybe that can deliver even better on that specific promise.
19:02But the thing about a good assistant
19:04is it needs to know everything about you.
19:08That's even true with a human assistant.
19:10Like it needs to know your schedule,
19:12it needs to know where you go every day,
19:14it needs to know who you talk to,
19:16where your preferences are personally and for products,
19:19like it needs to know everything about you.
19:21And your smartphone already knows a lot of things about you
19:27but this is a standalone device
19:29that doesn't talk to your phone
19:31and so it doesn't know any of the things about you
19:34that your phone knows.
19:35So just from that, it's already at such a massive
19:37disadvantage for the smartphone for being helpful.
19:40I mean, you can do what I did,
19:42fully immerse yourself for several days straight
19:44and tell it to remember everything
19:45and call people, text people from it.
19:47But it's still, it will always have that gap.
19:50And that's not even mentioning this,
19:52like I said, it has its own phone number.
19:54And so if you text people and call people from this,
19:57yeah, it can summarize all of your messages from the day
20:00and all that stuff from these conversations
20:04but it doesn't see any of these conversations.
20:07So if you're texting here, this is not the same thread,
20:11that gap is always gonna be there.
20:13So I guess that begs the question,
20:16why didn't they just make this connect to your phone?
20:21Everyone has a phone.
20:23That's the question that I think
20:24a lot of people are wondering.
20:26And I think, this is my theory,
20:29but I think Humane wants this thing
20:33to eventually be a very powerful standalone device someday.
20:38And in order to get it to that future,
20:40they can't set the precedent now
20:43of connecting it to your phone.
20:44Because then that means they have to remove that feature
20:46in the future and they don't wanna do that.
20:48So this device as it exists today
20:52is hamstrung by its ideal future version of itself.
20:56It's like Vision Pro.
20:57Like I talked about it in the Vision Pro review.
21:00It doesn't actually pair to your iPhone in any way.
21:01It's its own standalone computer.
21:03And of course Apple sees down the road,
21:05that could just be like a little pair of smart glasses.
21:07You don't need an iPhone to use that.
21:09But now today, this thing is a victim
21:12of its future ambition.
21:14It was really hard to come up with a title for this video,
21:22but I will say at one point,
21:23my working title for this was,
21:25this product is either the dumbest thing ever,
21:29or I'm an idiot.
21:32Because yes, it's really, really, really, really bad now.
21:37But every once in a while, and I mean a while,
21:41I would use it and it would do exactly
21:43what it's supposed to do quickly and I'd get it.
21:46And I'd really feel like that's how it's supposed to feel.
21:50And then I'd do another request
21:52and it would remind me of reality.
21:53But here's an example, right?
21:55I've said a thousand times, like my best ideas,
21:58golden rule, they always show up
22:00when I can't write them down.
22:01Like when I'm about to fall asleep
22:03or I'm in the shower or driving, right?
22:07So I'm using the pen, I'm driving to the studio
22:09and I have an idea.
22:11I'm not trying to write it down on my phone
22:13while driving or pull over,
22:15but I had the pen so I'm driving
22:17and I just remind me of this cool ABC outro idea
22:22for the Humane Review.
22:25And I just kept driving and it wrote it down
22:27and it saved it.
22:28Saving memory.
22:29And when I go check the Humane-
22:30The cool ABC outro idea for the Humane Review
22:33has been saved.
22:34Voice is kind of annoying,
22:35but now that's up in the Humane AI Center.
22:37So when I arrive at the studio,
22:38that thing that I told it to remember
22:40is sitting there waiting for me.
22:42That was nice.
22:42Or the other thing, the unique first-person videos.
22:44I could put it in the center of my chest and take videos.
22:47I would never want to distract myself
22:50while driving, taking a video,
22:51but even though the quality is not great,
22:54that's the most frictionless version of that
22:56along with smart glasses.
22:57That's great.
22:58And I think number one on top of all of this
23:00is if you ask me like,
23:01who should buy this device right now?
23:04I mean, nobody should buy this device right now,
23:05but if there's one person who would most consider it,
23:09it's the person that wants to spend
23:12as little time as possible with a screen in their hands.
23:15Like as little time as possible on their phone.
23:18That's me sometimes.
23:19I don't want to doom scroll
23:20the second I pull my phone out of my pocket.
23:22For that person,
23:24if they want that at the expense of everything else,
23:27this device represents just a glimmer of hope
23:31for that future.
23:32Now the problem of course is with this device,
23:34there's just so much more friction
23:36and fumbling and annoyance that comes with it
23:41that you don't want to do it,
23:42even though you would accomplish the goal
23:44of less screen time and living in the moment.
23:46But yeah, that's the issue with it.
23:49I literally had a moment like we did a shoot in Ohio
23:52the other day, which was like a travel day.
23:54And I woke up in the morning and I thought like,
23:57I don't want to deal with this pin today.
23:59Like I have driving,
24:00so the seatbelt's going to be annoying.
24:02And then we're going to go to the airport
24:03and then probably got to take it off
24:05through the metal detector and then put it on again,
24:06which means I have to log in with the pin again
24:08and just all this.
24:09And I just was like,
24:11I don't want to have to charge this seven times.
24:13Like I don't want to wear it today.
24:14So I skipped it.
24:16And you should probably skip this product too.
24:19And never buy a product based on the future promise
24:22of updates to it.
24:24Obviously, this is a product that has a long way to go
24:26and there's a team behind it.
24:28And look, I got to say,
24:29as a brand new product
24:31and a team trying to make something new,
24:33that I respect.
24:34I respect the attempt
24:36because we don't get a lot of totally new stuff.
24:38But yeah, this is a long way to go.
24:41They do have a roadmap actually, I'll say.
24:43They've shared it.
24:44There's some decent stuff on there,
24:46including number sharing,
24:48but that also has no date and no other information.
24:50So I'll just say, good luck.
24:54Godspeed.
24:55Thanks for watching.
24:57Catch you in the next one.
24:58Peace.