While I think the “Laser Ink Display” projector on the Humane Ai Pin is pretty cool and makes for a very interesting user experience, I do not think this product is anywhere close to replacing the smartphone.
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At this point, I think people don’t just like (or even love) their phones. Rather, they expect it as a constant necessity. Its success fundamentally comes down to utility and portability. You can do absolutely everything on it wherever you are with just one hand.
The functionality of the Ai Pin does not come close to that at launch (in early 2024), and I’d argue it never will because it lacks a traditional display that you can tap and type on with your fingers for very precise and prolonged input.
Beyond touch interaction, the screen on a phone reproduces images, text, and UIs with high fidelity. To be painfully obvious, text and icons are remarkably fast to parse and remain on the display so you can gaze and quickly go back (to reread). The same cannot be said of audio, which is Humane’s other interaction method.
Humane would argue that the big ace up its sleeve is AI that summarizes your inbox — if not every app on your phone — and conveys that verbally. The idea of an AI that knows you so well that it can make key decisions about what and what not to tell you is just not close to the caliber of a human assistant. This particular technology might get there eventually, but I don’t think audio is the best or most efficient way to convey that.
The smartphone is the primary computing device for many people today because even a (relatively) small display is enough to let them get…
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