Jacob Kastrenakes, writing for The Verge, on that new Humane device we caught wind of last month:
At TED last month, Humane co-founder Imran Chaudhri gave a demonstration of the AI-powered wearable the company is building as a replacement for smartphones. Bits of the video leaked online after the event, but the full video is now available to watch.
Kastrenakes proceeds to list out all the interactions Chaudhri makes with the device, and then lists out all the questions about how this device is supposed to work.
He doesn’t come out and say it, so I will: I smell bullshit. An AI-powered wearable with no screen — sorry, it has a projector, so it has a screen — that doesn’t need to pair with another device, yet is connected to your phone number, email, and contacts?
Could I be wrong? Could this end up being a magical product? Sure, but don’t count on it.
Chaudhri talks about unburdening us from our smartphones, but as John Gruber points out, people don’t feel burdened by their phones.
It’s quite possible Chaudhri is too close to his creation to gauge whether he has created a great product or not. It’s also quite possible he’s assembled a team of people who enjoy the smell of their own farts.
Be wise to bullshit.
Stay vigilant.
Sidenote: I’d also like to point out Imran Chaudhri has the passion and enthusiasm of an AI bot in his TED talk. Chaudhri, if you worked at Apple for over two decades, you should have walked away with the knowledge not only of how to design a product, but how to unveil it.
Just compare Chaudhri introducing his AI-powered wearable to Steve Jobs unveiling the the original iPhone.
Update: User @user-ex1dk3sj3c has the winning comment on the YouTube video for this TED Talk:
What’s more impressive is that Imran Chaudhri is actually a robot designed by Boston Dynamics and powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT.