Humane has announced that it has sold most of its assets to HP for $116 million. Along with this, the company has decided to stop selling its $499 AI Pin immediately. Customers who have already purchased the AI Pin have been informed that their devices will stop working after 12 noon (PST) on February 28, 2025.
After that date, AI Pins will not be able to connect to Humane’s servers. This means that calling, messaging, AI queries or any cloud-based services will not be available. The company has advised customers to secure their important photos and data on an external device, as Humane will completely shut down its servers.
Humane has also said that it will end customer support service for AI Pin after February 28. However, refunds will be given only to those customers who have purchased AI Pin within the last 90 days. Those who have already bought the device will not get a refund.
This journey of Humane was very short but famous. In April 2024, the company launched AI Pin and introduced it as an alternative to smartphones. The founders of Humane, Bethany Bongiorno and Imran Chaudhri, had previously worked at Apple. They raised more than $230 million in funding to make this device.
But AI Pin could not perform well in the market. Many customers and reviewers criticized it. According to some reports, in the summer last year, the return of AI Pin started exceeding its sales. Apart from this, the company also warned customers about its charging case that there is a risk of fire from the battery in it. In October 2024, Humane reduced the price of AI Pin from $699 to $499, but this move also failed to attract customers.
Now HP has decided to add engineers and product managers from Humane’s team to its team. HP announced in a blog post that this acquisition will lay the foundation for a new AI innovation lab called HP IQ. The lab aims to integrate AI into HP’s various products and services.
HP is also buying some of Humane’s technologies, including its CosmOS AI operating system. Recently, Humane showed the possibility of CosmOS being used in various devices, such as car entertainment systems, smart speakers, TVs and Android phones in an advertisement. HP can use these technologies to add AI to its personal computers and printers.
Humane has informed customers only 10 days ago that their AI Pins will stop working soon. After 12 noon on February 28, the device will only show offline features such as battery level, but no cloud-based features will work.
Humane’s AI Pin launched with great expectations but received a very poor response from critics. A reviewer from The Verge said that it “doesn’t work at all” and famous tech critic MKBHD called it “the worst product ever”.
Humane was reportedly looking for a buyer soon after the launch of its AI Pin and initially wanted to sell it for $1 billion. But in the end, the deal fell through for a mere $116 million.
Now, HP will use Humane’s team and its technology to improve its AI-based products. HP says that this acquisition will help develop a new generation of AI devices. However, Humane’s AI Pin is history, and it turned out to be a costly lesson for its users.
