Humane is selling “key AI capabilities” to HP for $116 million and will stop selling AI Pin, the company announced today.
AI Pins that have already been purchased will continue to function normally until 3PM ET on February 28th, Humane says in a support document. After that date, Pins will “no longer connect to Humane’s servers.” As a result, AI Pin features will “no longer include calling, messaging, AI queries / responses, or cloud access.” Humane is also encouraging users to download any pictures, videos, and notes stored on their Pins before they are permanently deleted at that shutdown time.
After the shutdown, offline features like “battery level” will still work, Humane says, but “any function that requires cloud connectivity like voice interactions, AI responses, and .Center access” will not.
Humane will only offer refunds on AI Pins that are “the 90-day return window from their original shipment date,” according to an FAQ about the shutdown. Refunds “must be submitted by February 27th, 2025.” If you have paid for a Humane subscription past February 28th, Humane says that “we will process a prorated refund.”
Anyone who had been waiting for a replacement charging case following its recall will “automatically receive a refund for the portion of your original purchase price that was allocated to the Charge Case after February 28, 2025.”
As for the AI capabilities being purchased by HP, those include Humane’s “AI-powered platform Cosmos, highly skilled technical talent, and intellectual property with more than 300 patents and patent applications,” Humane says in its press release.
Ahead of the AI Pin’s official launch, Humane hyped up the device with an onstage demo at TED that left us with a lot of questions and in a reveal video that it had to update to address a big error. The Pin finally launched in April 2024 to scathing reviews; The Verge’s David Pierce said that “it just doesn’t work” and MKBHD called it “the worst product I’ve ever reviewed.”
Bloomberg reports that “Humane’s team, including founders Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, will form a new division at HP to help integrate artificial intelligence into the company’s personal computers, printers and connected conference rooms,” per an HP executive.
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