The Humane AI Pin, if you were paying attention in the last few weeks, went from one of the “best inventions of 2023” (really, Time? Really?) to an absolute dumpster fire of a product. Turns out, that last bit should be taken literally.
Folks who bought the Pin despite Marques Brownlee’s warnings have been receiving emails from Humane warning them to cease using the device’s charger immediately. Why? Well, there’s a significant risk that it’ll catch fire and burn down your home.
Oh, the Humane-ity
Okay, so that last bit is just extrapolation on our part but the company claims that “…a quality issue with the battery cell supplied by a third-party vendor used in your Charge Case Accessory” could constitute a fire risk. Not every device is affected, it seems, but enough that everyone should stop using the Pin’s Charge Case immediately.
Usually, an announcement like this is followed swiftly by a recall, as happened when Samsung had issues with the Galaxy Note 7 in 2016. That hasn’t happened here, yet, but odds are that it will happen at some point. Whether Humane can afford to take the hit remains to be seen.
Humane’s full explanation is that a single report of an issue cropping up when using both a third-party cable and power source led to the company discovering the aforementioned quality issue. The vendor supplying this battery cell has been turfed and a replacement is being sought. Users can still use other charging methods to keep their AI Pin topped up but it’s not a good look for the company. Humane knows this, which is why the entirety of the current situation is blamed on external circumstances in its email to customers.
