Human AI PIN is dead as HP buys startups for $116 million

Humanitarian It was announced on Tuesday HP acquired it for $116 million. The hardware startup will soon discontinue selling the $499 AI pin. Humane warned customers who have already purchased the PIN that their devices will be out of function by the end of the month. Blog post.

From that day onwards, the company says that AI pins will no longer connect to Humane’s servers. The device cannot call, messaging, AI queries/respond, or cloud access. Humane advises AI PIN owners to immediately transfer important photos and data to external devices.

Humane also said that AI PIN customer support team will be disbanding on February 28th.

The news puts an end to a short-lived, buzzy hardware startup. Humane splashed with the release of AI PIN in April 2024. Founded by former applicant employees Bethany Bongiorno and Imran Chaudhri, the Bay Area startup has raised over $230 million to create the device.

However, Humane’s AI PIN has disappointed many early reviewers and customers, causing a crisis in the company. At one point last summer, Human’s Return for AI Pin returns began to outperform sales from. Barge. Adding humiliation to the injury, Humane instructed the customer to stop using the device’s charging case, citing concerns about the battery fire. In October, the company reduced the price of its AI pins by $200.

HP is acquiring Humane engineers and product managers, according to a blog post that announced the acquisition. The humanitarian team forms the basis for a new group within HP, known as HP IQ. This describes it as “AI Innovation Lab focused on building an intelligent ecosystem across HP’s products and services for the future of work.”

HP also acquires some of Humane’s technologies, including the COSMOS AI operating system. Humane recently presented an ad that suggests that AI operating systems can run on car entertainment systems, smart speakers, TVs and Android phones. This technology can be used to integrate AI into HP’s personal computers and printers.

Humane was looking to acquire it in May 2024 for a much higher price, between $750 million and $1 billion. Report from Bloomberg.

Humane did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.