Humane has warned its Ai Pin users to “immediately stop” using the charging case that shipped with the screenless wearable as it may pose a “fire safety risk.” In an email to customers on Thursday, the startup blamed low-quality battery cells supplied by a third-party vendor for the issue.
Also read: Humane Aiming For $1 Billion Sale After Bumpy Ai Pin Launch
Humane said it identified a quality issue with the battery cells while reviewing one customer report of a charging issue. In light of the risk, the San Francisco-based firm said it has immediately disqualified the battery vendor in question and is in the process of finding a new supplier.
Humane offers free subscription as compensation
Billed as the post-smartphone future, the Ai Pin is a computer that is magnetically worn into the user’s clothing and projected to the palm rather than having a screen. The device comes with two battery boosters, a charging pad, a charging case, a cable and an adapter.
In the email posted by some users on social media, Humane emphasized that the problem is isolated only to certain battery cells and is not related to the charge case’s hardware design. It said the Ai Pin’s battery boosters and charge pad were not affected and remained safe for continued use.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we are reaching out today to ask that you immediately stop using and charging your charge case accessory due to an issue with certain battery cells,” the company detailed.
Here’s the email @humane sent me about the Charging Case:
Weird that they would send it to my work email… not the email that is associated with my Ai Pin account and service pic.twitter.com/oL5rrmVikk
— Ray Wong (@raywongy) June 5, 2024
Humane offered Ai Pin users two free months of the subscription service required for most of its functionality, as compensation for the condemned battery cells.
The gadget costs $699 but people also pay a monthly subscription of $24 to use many of the pin’s functions. Humane has not communicated the flaw outside the email warning.
Battery defect could derail $1B sale
Humane was formed in 2018 by Apple veterans and couple, Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno. The start-up has raised $230 million from investors including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
Also read: Can the Humane Ai Pin Truly Bridge the Gap in Digital Interactions?
Its flagship product, Ai Pin, debuted to unfavorable reviews a few weeks back. One reviewer who tested the pin for two weeks concluded that “Ai Pin is an interesting idea that is so thoroughly unfinished and so totally broken in so many unacceptable ways.”
According to Humane, the device is meant to help people improve their productivity, using hands-free voice commands to make calls, send texts, or access information from the internet.
However, the newly uncovered battery defect does not help Humane’s founders’ ongoing attempts to sell the company for $1 billion after a bumpy launch.
Cryptopolitan Reporting by Jeffrey Gogo