After the failure of its first AI gadget, the company is now up for sale

Just months after shipping its first AI-powered product, Humane is now planning to sell to investors.

This news could almost be considered a textbook case: according to Bloomberg, Humane is now for sale. This information came from several sources consistent and known to the company, just weeks after the launch of the first units of AI Pin, the company’s first product.

The Humane AI pin, announced at the end of 2023, quickly caused a sensation. The promise of this little badge was to free us from our dependence on smartphones through simple interaction with our voice. AI Pin was mainly marketed as being able to answer emails, make phone calls, order products from Amazon, etc. The project was spearheaded by former Apple employees: Bethany Bongiorno, former director of iOS and MacOS, and Imran Chaudhri, iPhone designer, iPod, iPad and Apple Watch.

Unfortunately for the company, the first deliveries and tests of AI Pin quickly proved disastrous. And so it was, the device lacked many of the features promised during its announcement, and there were an extremely large number of bugs. This made using AI Pin much more difficult than simply whipping out your smartphone to perform a task. Add to that shaky heat dissipation and ridiculous battery life, and you’ll have every reason to avoid this device.

Today, the Bloomberg website reports that the company is in talks with a financial advisor regarding a possible buyout estimated at $750-1 billion. If this sale could reveal the company’s growth strategy, the timing remains quite revealing for this new industry, while the Rabbit R1, another major AI-based device, has also come under fire following initial reports from the specialist press.

Quite a revealing moment of the impact and usefulness of artificial intelligence among the general public. If AI is clearly gaining traction among investors, it still needs to prove its legitimacy in the eyes of real customers. Humane has not yet responded to press requests and has not confirmed this information at this time.