Humane's AI Pin probably can't replace your phone

• Ex-Apple managers just released a $699 AI-powered wearable Pin device.
• A lot of its functions are controlled by voice command, which can be awkward in public.

Imagine picking up a dragonfruit in the produce aisle of a busy Trader Joe's. You tap a device clipped to your jacket lapel, hold up the fruit and ask, "is this ok to eat?" The device quickly answers out loud: "Yes. Dragonfruit is low in sugar."

This scenario is one of the scenes in the demo video for the AI Pin, a new wearable device. The features of the device feel like something out of science fiction: artificial intelligence answers your questions from a tiny clip on your shirt. The technology is impressive, even mind-blowing.

The only downside is that you look like an absolute weirdo, talking to a fruit in the middle of the grocery store. Tradeoffs.

Humane, a AI hardware startup, announced that its first device, the AI Pin will go on sale at $699. The small clip uses voice commands with AI to answer questions, summarize your text messages, translate languages, and play music, as well as a camera that can look at things and tell you about them. The most surprising thing is a little laser display that can project into your hand and responds to hand gestures.

It's very cool, and obviously, as someone who loves new tech and weird gadgets, I want one.

But do I think it would actually be useful? I'm not so sure.

A demo video showed the cofounders Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, former Apple employees, showing off some of the features and specs of the Pin. Another video showed people using it in everyday life situations — walking down the street, shopping, and eating.

The immediate problem that came to my mind is that I do not, ever, want to be talking to a voice command device in a public setting. It's weird! It's antisocial behavior! Voice assistants like Siri and Alexa have been around for years now, and the social norms about how weird or not weird it is to use them in public have already been established: don't!

(Voice assistants, of course, offer accessibility to people may have trouble using a touch screen phone. Perhaps normalizing public use of voice assistants would be good, but that hasn't yet really happened in the decade+ since Siri launched.)

The AI Pin is one way to go screen-free

If the idea of the Pin is to offer a screen-free version of your phone, I can imagine that's very appealing to many people who want to be able to go for a walk without feeling the lure of checking Instagram. I have friends who have gotten the Apple Watch with cellular for this exact reason: to be connected if necessary but not distracted by the pull of the screen. Another friend told me he's getting a flip phone as a "weekend phone" so he can be more present with his children while not working.

But the AI Pin isn't like a flip phone. It does a lot of things a phone could do: take photos, tell you information, set calendar appointments, track your calories, shop for you, or play your favorite playlists. I'm not totally convinced that if you wanted to do all that, you wouldn't just prefer to use your handy smartphone.

Some of the features in the demo seem sort of wonky. You can ask it to "catch me up" and it will summarize your latest messages into things like "Katie wants to know if you can meet at 7." It's impressive, but I'm not sure that would be all that much more helpful than reading the text messages on my own.

I can read much faster than I can talk or listen. Reading is actually an incredibly efficient method of ingesting information.

When I think about some of the stuff that the Pin can do like playing music or answering basic information questions — those are things that my phone is currently very good at doing, and quickly.

Being powered by AI is currently one of the big appeals of the Pin. For example, it can sift through your messages if you ask it, "what is that restaurant Amy told me about?" But if Apple starts adding AI to Siri — which seems pretty likely — that feature won't be unique.

One place I would use the AI Pin: the car

What appeals to me most about the AI Pin right now is being able to do a lot of these commands while I'm driving in the car – a time when I don't mind using voice commands and want to do all sorts of things my phone can usually do.

I love my phone. I love staring at it, I love reading things on it, I love watching Tiktoks on it, I like to kiss it goodnight before I go to sleep. I'm not looking to get rid of my phone — and I don't think the AI Pin could really do that anyway.

But I am curious about what something truly new could offer. I just don't want to be the person muttering to my shirt about protein content at the store.