At noon Pacific time on February 28, 2025 every Humane Ai Pin stopped working when its maker's servers went dark, while Meta's partner reported millions of camera glasses sold. The episode tests the phone-killer idea device by device: screenless pins, AI memory recorders, smart glasses and a muscle-reading wristband. It raises the bystander problem and gives the phone its full case, since every phone killer has so far become an accessory.
Who's who
- Imran ChaudhriHumane co-founder who presented the Ai Pin
- Bethany BongiornoHumane co-founder
- Jesse LyuRabbit chief executive who unveiled the R1
- Marques BrownleeTech reviewer who called the Ai Pin the worst product he reviewed
- Nik ShevchenkoFounder of Based Hardware, maker of the Omi wearable
- Jony IveFormer Apple designer whose hardware start-up OpenAI agreed to buy
- Patrick KaifoshMeta researcher who co-led the Nature paper on the wrist interface
- Thomas ReardonMeta researcher who co-led the Nature paper on the wrist interface
Where it happens
- San Francisco, California+12 more episodesHome of Humane and Based Hardware
Timeline
- November 9, 2023Humane unveils the Ai Pin at six hundred ninety-nine dollars
- January 9, 2024Rabbit unveils the R1 at the Consumer Electronics Show
- February 18, 2025HP agrees to buy most of Humane's assets for 116 million dollars
- February 28, 2025Ai Pins lose their connection to Humane's servers and stop working
- September 17, 2025Meta announces the Meta Ray-Ban Display and the Meta Neural Band
- February 2026EssilorLuxottica reports more than seven million Meta glasses sold in 2025
Still debated
Whether the screenless devices failed from poor execution or a flawed idea is argued, though the evidence so far favors the critics. Smart-glasses growth figures depend on what each analyst counts, and whether face recognition will come to consumer glasses remains open.