TED finally released Humane’s talk and I have to say, it’s fun to see their demo not on Twitter!
Here are a few initial thoughts…
I think their demo was interesting, but it felt like a demo. I’ve seen some sketches that Imran created and released around the Apple Watch, and for me, that’s the part I’m really excited about. How do we use this product? Is it always on? How is it privacy focused if it’s always on? What does the thing actually thing look like?!
Imran’s demo on stage with the black jacket and device almost custom stitched into the jacket gave me Steve Jobs releasing the Macintosh vibe, especially when Steve discovered that he could remove a floppy disc from his shirt pocket. I’m very curious how you could wear this product on say a t-shirt…
It almost seems like there are two parts to this experience - the hardware product, and the AI Algorithm underneath it all which is what interests me the most. It feels like there’s a baseline algorithm that everyone would get, and over time, it’ll learn your habits, behaviours, questions, curiosities and all, and that would color the AI over time. This would effectively give you a personalized AI. The more you use it, the better it would get? I think? I wonder if this customization of their algorithm would be done on-device, or if it would be cloud based… Again! I have so many questions!
I think a lot about Star Trek when I see this. Characters in Star Trek would use their badge on their chest, but Star Fleet personnel would still carry other devices. In order to activate their assistant, employees would have to tap on their badge and initiate a command - whether it’s “Computer” or to someone else. I’m curious to see how you initiate the device, and how this would impact our relationship with other computing devices. See?! More questions!!!!
I agree with Humane’s key point - I don’t think the future of humanity should involve more screen time, especially one that sits millimeters away from our face and isolates us. Anything we can do to shift away from that, the better. I’m excited to see what details Humane continues to release in the next few months. I have a lot of questions, but I’m very excited to learn more about their work!