Humane Pivots from AI Pin to CosmOS: A New Vision for AI Integration

Ai Pin maker Humane demos AI software for cars, phones and smart speakers

When Humane released its Ai Pin, the San Francisco-based gadget maker envisioned a world with dedicated AI devices -- something that you would carry with you in addition to the smartphone in your pocket. However, reviews and sales haven't been great -- returns reportedly begun to outpace unit sales at one point. And Humane recently dropped the price of its device from $700 to $500. While the AI device is still on sale, it's unclear what's next for the company -- which at least doesn't lack for funding (to the tune of more than $230 million). Now, Humane is pitching something new -- an operating system called CosmOS that could (potentially) greatly improve all the tech devices in your life. In a slick demo video, the company showed the OS running on a car's entertainment system, a smart speaker, a TV, and an Android phone. In many ways, CosmOS hints at what Amazon's Alexa, Google Assistant or Apple's Siri could become if/when they are combined with AI agent-like capabilities. It's a voice assistant that can understand complex queries and interact with other apps and services on your behalf. Humane says that CosmOS is based on the operating system that powers its Ai Pin. "This intelligent conductor seamlessly coordinates various AI models, data sets, services, and device capabilities to deliver a fluid, intuitive experience," the company said in the video. In its first example, the person in the video talks to CosmOS in their car and asks the assistant to turn up the heat at home. In the same query, they also want to know when people are coming over tonight. We're also instantly reminded that Humane is once again pitching a vision more than a product: The logo on the steering wheel is blurred out and there's a note saying it's "for illustration purposes only. Does not reflect available car functionality." Other use-case examples in the video include asking for takeout restaurant recommendations, asking for a recipe that the user already checked the day before, and asking a question about a sports game. The smart speaker used in the video is also blurred out. On the TV, Humane is pitching a multimodal and multi-step use case. For instance, you could ask how many goals a soccer player has scored this season. The AI assistant is supposed to understand who you are talking about based on the player on the screen and then answer your original question. As for the smartphone integration, the demo reminds me of Apple's pitch for a better Siri powered by Apple Intelligence at WWDC earlier this year. In Humane's case, CosmOS understand what's on your screen and can interact with your calendar in the background. Humane claims that third-party developers will be able to build integrations between CosmOS and their "agents, data, and services." In reality, the demo video feels more like a sales pitch -- to see if there's any company out there that would be interested in acquiring Humane and repurposing Humane's software in their own products.

Humane CosmOS kinda turns everything into a Pin

The company hopes its not-exactly-award-winning software will be adopted by third-parties. Its universally derided AI pin was a flop, so Humane now pivoting to software. The company just released a video showing how its CosmOS software could work in other devices like a car, TV and smart speaker as "an AI operating system built for a universe of connected devices." The only problem is that the software was a big part of what made the AI pin bad, and much of what Humane shows are "simulated experiences" for "illustrative purposes" rather than the AI in actual use. The video starts out with a person talking to CosmOS in a car (with the brand blurred out), asking for takeout restaurant suggestions and when guests are coming over, and commanding it to turn up the thermostat. Once at home, the user asks an unknown smart speaker (again, blurred out) for a recipe and a soccer player's scoring stats from their smart TV. "I didn't have to specify the player," the person states. "CosmOS is just using the context of what's on the screen to answer." Then, this AI-empowered individual notes that he has CosmOS on his phone, and asks it to read an email and tell him if he needs to follow up with anything. After some to-and-fro, the AI finds space on the user's calendar and schedules an appointment with an RSVP. Humane notes that CosmOS is device and LLM agnostic, so it can work on cars, mobile devices, PCs, wearables and more. "And as we get closer to releasing our SDK to the public, developers and enterprise will easily be able to add and integrate their agents data and services to CosmOS, leveraging the powerful ecosystem to provide even more utility to all types of devices and platforms," according to the voiceover. If Humane is selling its OS as an AI option for third -party devices, it has some stiff competition. As Cherlynn Low noted in our Engadget review, its AI pin wasn't much better than a Google search for information and was slower. Though it did have some useful features like context for follow-up questions, that's the least of things for any AI assistant in 2024. With all that, it seems that any company building the devices it shows (cars, TVs, phones, etc.) are more likely to consider OpenAI, Gemini, or other far more credible players for an AI assistant.