Technology

The good, the bad, and the Humane Pin

The state and future of AI gadgets, Taylor Swift’s TikTok return, and party speakers everywhere, on this episode of The Vergecast.

Published 8 months ago on Apr 14th 2024, 5:00 am

By Web Desk

Seven. Hundred. Dollars. After a year of asking questions about this much-hyped AI wearable, the Humane AI Pin is here, and, well, we still have lots of questions. We’re also still trying to figure out how it all works — and where it goes from here.

The Vergecast is up for a Webby Award, and we need your vote to win! Support us by voting for the show in the People’s Voice technology podcast category here.

On this episode of The Vergecast, we dive deep into our review of the AI Pin and try to figure out what went wrong with this device and whether there’s a real future for it or any other AI-powered gadget. The trouble, we discover, is that these devices are stacking new technology on top of new technology, and until it all works perfectly, none of it will work very well. Also, did we mention the AI Pin is seven hundred dollars?

After that, we talk about the growing rift between OpenAI and the rest of the internet after some very good reporting showed how many millions of YouTube videos the company transcribed and used to train its models. We also talk about how Taylor Swift’s music came back to TikTok and whether there might be more to come.

Finally, we get a remarkably on-brand set of news in the lightning round, including E Ink screens, content regulation, and photo sharing. Sony also made a new party speaker, so of course, we spend an unreasonably long time on the party speaker. You have to look at those photos.

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are a few links to get you started, beginning with Humane:

Humane AI Pin review: not even closeWe now have a better look at what’s inside the Humane AI Pin

On AI:

OpenAI transcribed over a million hours of YouTube videos to train GPT-4From The New York Times: How Tech Giants Cut Corners to Harvest Data for A.I.From The Wall Street Journal: For Data-Guzzling AI Companies, the Internet Is Too Small

On Taylor Swift:

Taylor Swift’s music is back on TikTokFrom Variety: Taylor Swift Songs Return to TikTok

And in the lightning round:

Alex Cranz’s pick: Kobo announces its first color e-readers Alex’s other pick: The MPA has big plans to crack down on movie piracy againDavid Pierce’s pick: Meta says it’s fixing ‘HD’ photo sharing in Facebook MessengerFrom Platformer: Marissa Mayer’s eternal SunshineNilay Patel’s pick: Sony’s new headphones and speakers are all about skull-rattling bass