Jules Terpak

Jules Terpak

Share this post

Jules Terpak
Jules Terpak
The aftermath of Humane's AI Pin launch
Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More

The aftermath of Humane's AI Pin launch

There's been a lot of discourse around Humane's Ai Pin and Marques Brownlee’s review of it

Jules Terpak's avatar
Jules Terpak
Apr 26, 2024
∙ Paid
Share

This is an interesting case study not only regarding the future of tech, but also the current state of the new/independent media ecosystem.

Humane launched their first product, AI Pin, and the reviews have not been good.

This device set out, not to replace, but to change people’s relationship with smartphones has had an unusual amount of buzz around it for a startup due to its talented team, significant funding, interesting proposition, and creation of a new hardware category.

They’ve been put under enough of a microscope that many top YouTubers and media companies have decided to make main channel videos dedicated to it.

But one person in particular is at the helm of a lot of discourse — and that’s Marques Brownlee aka MKBHD. He’s been reviewing tech products (mostly hardware) for the past 15 years and at nearly 19M subscribers, is many people’s go-to.

He titled his review of the AI Pin, “The worst product I’ve ever reviewed… for now”.

Which is reminiscent of a video he posted on a side channel back in February titled, “This is the Worst Car I've Ever Reviewed”. To date, that video has more than 5M views and supposedly caused a noticeable dip in the company’s already diminishing stock market performance the day it went live.

His AI Pin review is already close to that view count after only two days and there are basically three camps of people:

(1) Those who are taking the title too literally

(2) Those who believe he went too far

And (3) Those who are like damn that’s tough but there can still be a path forward for Humane

Sneak peek is I think this tweet causing the most discourse at nearly 25M impressions which states, “I find it distasteful, almost unethical, to say this when you have 18 million subscribers.” that I originally found appalling, potentially holds an ounce of validity.

However, I think that those in the two camps of taking the title too literally or believing he went too far… need to work on their fucking attention spans or grow a backbone.

Today we’ll quickly go over what version one of Humane’s AI Pin is, the power of social media and/or lack thereof, as well as my thoughts on the product because I own one.

Alright, let’s get into the video.

[Insert intro animation]

This post is for paid subscribers

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Jules Terpak
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share

Copy link
Facebook
Email
Notes
More