Ex-Apple Execs’ Screenless iPhone Killer Gets A Name, Launching This Year

Screenshot via Humane

Tech fatigue is something people often complain about as they stare into the infinite pits of their device screens. A new invention you carry in your shirt pocket aims to fix that.

Ever since the unveiling of the iPhone in 2007, the touchscreen has been ubiquitous in the way people interact in their day-to-day lives. But some of the tech pioneers that helped create this norm are eliminating it altogether with the Humane Ai Pin, a product that’s wireless, weightless, screenless—and, perhaps importantly, disruption-free.

First previewed at a TED Talk in April, the minimalist device is a tiny, personalized projector that uses artificial intelligence to feed you essential and contextual information. It’s “standalone,” so there’s no need to carry your smartphone around.

Humane was founded by two ex-Apple veterans—Imran Chaudhri, who was the director of design for Apple’s human interface, and Bethany Bongiorno, his wife and a former director of software engineering—in 2018. Since then, they’d been extremely tight-lipped about what they were working on.

The company’s first product is still very much shrouded in mystery, and everything people understand about how it works comes from Chaudhri’s keynote. On June 30, the public finally got wind of its name, the Humane Ai Pin.

In addition, Humane revealed that this virtually weightless wearable will debut “later this year.”

A sneak peek of our first product:@imranchaudhri's @TEDTalks is now available to watch: https://t.co/Pv6MsZVJB9 pic.twitter.com/q0AEGIUAOR

— Humane (@Humane) May 9, 2023

“The Humane Ai Pin is a new type of standalone device with a software platform that harnesses the power of AI to enable innovative personal computing experiences,” the company explains in the press release.

Chaudhri previously teased the gadget’s ability to project important information, like call details, onto a wall or your palm.

During his demonstration, Chaudri answered a call from his wife and Humane CEO Bongiorno by lifting up his hand, which showed essential call information. He also had his speech translated into French in real time.

“It interacts with the world the way you interact with the world, hearing what you hear, seeing what you see, while being privacy-first, and safe, and completely fading into the background of your life,” he expressed then.

The name Humane sums up the firm’s aspirations of integrating AI to better lives, in a way that’s most empowering for humankind.

To that end, the Ai Pin rethinks overwhelming notifications with a ‘catch me up’ function that recaps daily events, condensing them into messages like: “You got an email, and Bethany sent you some photos.”

@humane's device helping you decide what you can and cannot eat based on knowing your preferences and dietary restrictions. pic.twitter.com/PFwEAsNxDI

— Michael Mofina (@MichaelMofina) April 21, 2023

The Humane Ai Pin will be powered by Qualcomm Technologies’ Snapdragon platform, per the latest announcement.

“We are excited to reveal our first device will be called the Humane Ai Pin,” share the co-founders. “Our Ai Pin presents an opportunity for people to take AI with them everywhere and to unlock a new era of personal mobile computing which is seamless, screenless, and sensing.”

Following the inventors from Apple are former employees including system software engineer Myles Stremick, iPhone hardware pioneer Rubén Caballero, factory test engineer Michael Huang, iPhone product designers Aaron Oro and Jared Ostdiek, and Face ID developer Adam Binsz, among others.

While there are no release details for the Humane Ai Pin yet, hopeful early adopters can sign up for “priority access” via the waitlist here. 

[via Tom’s Guide and Notebookcheck, cover image via Humane]