To say the least, the reported AI gadget looks troublesome. According to the report, Apple’s Pin is a “thin, flat, circular disk with an aluminum and glass shell” and has two cameras, including a standard and a wide-angle camera, built into the front. Those cameras are designed to take in the wearer’s surroundings through photos and video, which I assume will be some kind of computer vision-based feature.
Naturally, the Pin also reportedly has microphones to capture sound, meaning it probably uses a voice assistant and could perhaps be used for things like translation. Oddly, the Pin is also said to have a speaker and “a physical button on one edge of it” as well as “a magnetic inductive charging interface on its back, similar to the interface used on the Apple Watch.” Size-wise, The Information’s sources say they’re aiming to make the thing the size of an AirTag.
That’s a lot of information, but I still have a lot of questions. For one, how does this thing connect? If it’s the magnet, then I have bad news, which is that the whole magnetic pin thing doesn’t actually work. There were a lot of problems with Humane’s AI pins, but not with the magnets. No A major. Keeping an expensive AI gadget attached to your clothes is harder than it sounds, and I’m not sure Apple has a solution.
Also, does anyone even need an AI PIN? If Humane’s expensive failed experiment is any indication, I’ll bet the answer is no. Of course, maybe Humane didn’t have the right resources or skills to implement the idea, or maybe the idea of an AI pin replacing a smartphone wasn’t a good idea to begin with. Personally, my hypothetical AI-generated money is the latter.
Surprisingly, one of the most eyebrow-raising parts of the report isn’t that Apple is rekindling the dumpster fire that was humanitarian; It seems to be doing all this to compete with none other than OpenAI. In case you missed it, OpenAI (with the help of ex-Apple executive, Jony Ive) reportedly has several AI gadgets planned for the near future, including a competitor to AirPods and… a pen. The report said Apple is accelerating the development of its ill-advised AI gadget to ensure it doesn’t outsell OpenAI’s success.
The problem with that picture is that I’m not sure it would have any success seeing it. AI gadgets are about as unproven a category as it gets in the tech world, and the rush to join that unproven fad seems short-sighted to say the least. I doubt this thing (if it actually exists) will ever see the light of day, but who knows. Maybe Apple really is He Caught chasing the AI dragon. That’s what investors want, right?
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