“Glasses are things that have come and gone. A lot of people have attempted them,” said Imran Chaudhri of Humane, the startup developing the Ai Pin. In a recent Instagram Live, Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, the co-founders, discussed with the audience their choice of the Ai Pin’s form factor. 

Meta has come up with its Ray-Ban smart glasses that give almost the same functionality as the Ai Pin, but in the form of glasses. Until the Humane Ai Pin was announced, it seemed like a gadget of the future, that everyone would be wearing, and recording the world around them. But now, investing in a pair of glasses seems to be outdated altogether. 

“One of the reasons they are questionable is that only some of them actually wear glasses,” continued Chaudhri. Glasses come as an addition to someone’s fashion choices, which a lot of people don’t really want. “If you wear glasses, you do that to essentially see, and protect your eyes. There is a lot of consideration that goes into that,” Chaudhri added.

Ergo, an Ai Pin

Chaudhri said that one of the most important things when it comes to building these products is how they would understand the context around them. He said that glasses are not the only way to give you context, and that is why the team explored the Ai Pin.

Furthermore, providing additional inputs and ways to interact with the computer is also very necessary, which Chaudhri claims his product is better at.

“We were able to pack a lot of technology into something really small. AI can create an experience that allows the computer to essentially take a back seat” said Chaudhari in the demo video. “Ai Pin has replaced a lot of things I do on my smartphone,” he said drawing parallels to how smartphones did not replace laptops. 

On the other hand, “There is only one way to use glasses, or any handheld device. But when it comes to the Pin you can do it anyway you want,” said Chaudhri. Though this adds to the accessibility of the device, at least when it comes to Apple Vision Pro, it is right there on the person’s face, not trying to hide in plain sight like the other two products. 

“Ai Pin is the embodiment of our vision to integrate AI into the fabric of daily life, enhancing our capabilities without overshadowing our humanity,” the founders said during the release. 

Focus on transparency

Bongiorno emphasises that the Ai Pin is not filming all the time when addressing people concerned about privacy. “The goal has always been to be more transparent than the devices that are present today.” 

She said that Imran’s biggest concern since the beginning was ensuring privacy, and that is why the team developed the trust light which turns on every time an optical sensor is being used. “Others should know that you are wearing them, which glasses don’t really do that well,” Chaudhri explained. 

To mitigate this privacy risk, Meta had introduced a white light that indicates to the people around that it is recording. The Ai Pin also has a similar mechanism with its trust light. Just like Meta Glasses would be on our noses and watching everything we see, the same can be said about the Ai Pin, but it is clear that the founders have taken measures to mitigate it.

Mark Zuckerberg was confident about the future of the metaverse with such glasses. “I think we’re moving towards a world where we’re gonna have something that looks like normal glasses where you see the physical world, but you’ll see holograms.”

Concerns with Meta Glasses

The reason these products are coming up in the market are all about how users can access AI and compute in their lives, while also being more present in real lives, as highlighted by Bongiorno in the live sessions. 

People have been using the Meta Smart Glasses now, and are encountering all kinds of concerns with the product. An X user, David Wong, points out that though the camera and microphone are insanely good, he said that “it’s hard to know when I am recording or not.”

Though the Meta AI assistant feels like a dive into the future of conversations with computers, “I’ve been wearing the glasses on my head (not eyes) for a long time. They will usually go in standby mode, and then I don’t know how to reactivate. I sometimes wait, but most of the time it feels like I need to restart them. Then it’s not clear when I can start recording again,” he posted.

These concerns are completely removed when it comes to the Ai Pin form factor. One might say that the glasses are a bad idea, the same can be said about the Ai Pin, only when it comes to privacy though. The Humane team has made sure that its product does not interfere in the users’ lives, which essentially kills what Meta has been trying to do with its smart glasses, while also staying up with fashion.