Can AI really be the central engine of an autonomous device? For now, the answer clearly leans towards no. The example of Humane illustrates, in its own way, the difficulty—or even the current impossibility—of designing a device based exclusively on artificial intelligence.
The Ai Pin is not dead!
Launched with great fanfare last year, the Ai Pin was a monumental flop. So much so that the startup, despite being richly funded throughout its years of development, quickly sought a buyer. The defunct start-up found it with the tech industry's broom wagon: HP (which had already bought Palm's remains to better bury them). The manufacturer quickly put an end to this adventure by disconnecting the Ai Pins in circulation; this has been the case since the end of February.
Since then, the device has been useless, except as a luxury paperweight. However, a new initiative aims to breathe new life into the badges gathering dust (Humane is said to have sold around 10,000 during its short career). OpenPin is an open source project that allows the AI Pin to be used after its death.
The instructions require a bit of elbow grease, but if you have a computer with Chrome and an interposer—a physical interface to connect the badge to the computer that is fairly easy to find—it shouldn't be too complicated. After creating a free account on OpenPin, the device comes back to life!
The Ai Pin returns to its role as a voice assistant, it can answer questions ("where am I?", "where can I find a hairdresser?"...), translate, take photos, and even analyze images. It also offers more traditional assistant functions like note-taking, stock market prices, and even weather forecasts. Nothing more than what a much more versatile smartphone can do, but at least the Ai Pin won't end up in the electronics dump.
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