The Worst Product I’ve Ever Reviewed… For Now

YouTuber Marques Brownlee has taken a look at Humane’s new AI Pin and described it as “the worst product I’ve ever reviewed.” However, he did have a couple of positives things to say about it, too.

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For those who aren’t familiar with it, the Humane AI Pin resembles a strapless Apple Watch that you can pin to your shirt. It employs artificial intelligence and is supposed to one day replace your smartphone. But it doesn’t have a display in the traditional sense; most of the interaction is triggered by voice and comes through an interface projected onto your palm.

This diminutive device was unveiled in 2023 and was launched last week as an AI assistant that’s always with you. However, tech reviewers have largely panned it, criticizing it for being “too basic and not very useful” and for simply not living up to its promised capabilities. In an article that examined all the hands-on reviews of the Humane AI Pin, Tom’s Guide included the phrase “this is a disaster” in its headline.

Then on Sunday, Brownlee, known as MKBHD on YouTube, shared his thoughts on the device after using it for the past week. And it’s not good.

Not holding back, the popular YouTuber said the AI Pin was “too much of a hassle to use” and was “bad at almost everything it does.” Responses to voice inquiries are often slow, he said, and they’re sometimes incorrect because generative-AI chatbot technology still has a long way to go.

Battery life is also poor, with the device lasting only a few hours with heavy usage. The photos taken with the AI Pin “look rather poor,” the tech expert commented, and the videos “look even worse.” Brownlee added that the projector isn’t bright enough, making it difficult to see written content on your hand when outdoors. Oh, and it only projects text and images in green. Watch the video to find out everything he had to say about the AI Pin.

On the positive side, Brownlee liked how easily you can save quick voice notes while, say, you’re driving, and he also appreciated how it can be used for first-person videos, even though the quality is currently quite poor. He said: “As a brand-new product and a team trying to create something new – I respect that, I respect the attempt.”

But he concluded by stating that the AI Pin has “a long way to go” before it becomes truly usable and advised against buying a product based solely on the future promise of updates.