HP, manufacturer of AI PIN, for $ 116 million, to buy Human

Human, the ambitious start-up behind the AI ​​Pin device, which is one day a smartphone’s place, agreed to sell parts of its business to HP in $ 116 million, companies said on Tuesday.

HP said that it planned to buy human “AI capabilities” including its software platform, intellectual property, patent and some employees. The AI ​​PIN will be closed, Human said in a message to the customers.

The deal reflects a collapse for the high-ups of start-ups, which with an advertisement with a $ 699 pin, a TED Talk and the supermodel at Paris Fashion Week. Human had raised $ 240 million in funding from high-profile investors, including salesforce Chief Executive Officer Mark Benioff and his counterparts at OpenEII, Sam Altman, evaluated the company $ 850 million before issuing a product.

Human was built by Imran Chaudhary and Bethany Bongorno, husband-and wife’s founders, who previously worked in an apple. The pair imagined a weedable device that people would clip with their clothes and interact using voice commands and a laser display would be used on their hand. This idea was to cut the time of staring on the smartphone screen.

But the AI ​​PIN, which started shipping customers in the previous spring, was a flop.

Critics criticized the product, often give wrong answers with AI software or take a long time to respond, while the pin battery sometimes gets warm. Human was expected to sell 100,000 PINs in its first year, but received only about 10,000 orders. At one point, the company asked customers to stop using their charging cases due to the risk of fire.

Last year, Human, Human, hired an investment bank to sell itself, while demanding new funding. Start-up demanded a selling price of over $ 1 billion.

On Tuesday, Human posted a letter For customers on the company’s website, which was said that the PIN will no longer work later this month and the customer data will be removed. “Our business priorities have moved,” the letter said.

HP, which sells an estimated 53 million PCs in a year, has said that it wants to add AI abilities to its laptop to make them more useful. Last year, HP worked to develop a line of AI with Microsoft, called Copilot+ PCS.

In its announcement, HP said that it would use Human’s technology to become more “experience-linked company”. Human activists will be part of a new innovation laboratory called HP IQ that will focus on “building a wise ecosystem in HP’s products and services”. An HP spokesperson said that Mr. Chaudhary and Ms. Bongorno would join the company, as most of the start-up employees.

During a call with analysts in November, HP Chairman and CEO Enric Lares said, “We are investing aggressively in new AI-operated capabilities and software.” “We will focus on giving a state-of-the-art AI-managed technology.”