It’s becoming increasingly clear that the Humane AI Pin has no bright future. Last year, the AI-first wearable device seemed like the start of a great idea, but the actual product failed to deliver. The AI Pin isn’t a smartphone replacement and might not be a great smartphone accessory either. According to recent reports, Humane is looking for a buyer, which shows the startup isn’t doing well.
It gets even worse, as the company is now facing an issue with the battery cells of one of the accessories that comes with the Ai Pin. The Charge Case Accessory poses a fire safety risk, so Humane is asking owners to stop using it immediately.
This is not a full recall for the Humane Ai Pin, as everything else still works. Also, it’s unclear how may users would be affected. Humane has only reacted to one incident from a customer. But battery-related safety risks are never a good sign for any kind of tech product.
Humane sent out an email to Ai Pin owners that The Verge shared. You’ll find it in full at the end of this post.
Humane advises users to stop using and charging the Charge Case Accessory as it contains battery cells with certain issues. “Upon receiving a single report of a charging issue while using a third-party USB-C cable and third-party power source, we identified a quality issue with the battery cell supplied by a third-party vendor used in your Charge Case Accessory,” the email reads.
That battery supplier no longer meets Humane’s quality standards. The battery cells from that supplier might pose a fire risk. Humane dropped the vendor, and it’s looking for an alternative for the batteries going into the Charge Case accessory.
Humane also said that the Ai Pin itself, the Battery Boosters, and the Charge Pad are not affected. These devices contain batteries from different vendors.
Humane said it’ll offer buyers two months of its subscription for free to compensate for the battery issues. However, it didn’t provide a remedy for the affected accessory. The company should collect the faulty units and replace them with safe ones.
Then again, this isn’t a full recall, which would have to include solutions for the buyer. What’s worse is that Humane hasn’t addressed the matter on its website, but the Charge Case is marked as out of stock in its store:
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 for the Charge Case Accessory.
Upon receiving a single report of a charging issue while using a third-party USB-C cable and third-party power source, we identified a quality issue with the battery cell supplied by a third-party vendor used in your Charge Case Accessory.
Our investigation determined that the battery supplier was no longer meeting our quality standards and that there is a potential that certain battery cells supplied by this vendor may pose a fire safety risk. As a result, we immediately disqualified this battery vendor while we work to identify a new vendor to avoid such issues and maintain our high quality standards.
The issue identified is isolated only to certain battery cells used in the Charge Case Accessory and is not related to the Charge Case Accessory hardware design.
Importantly, Humane’s Ai Pin, its Battery Booster(s) and Charge Pad are not affected as the disqualified vendor does not supply batteries or any other components of those Humane products, and are safe for continued use.
While we know this may cause an inconvenience to you, customer safety is our priority at Humane. We design Ai Pin and related accessories with safety top of mind, and rigorously test and certify them to applicable US and international safety standards.
We appreciate your understanding and will be providing you with two additional months free of the Humane subscription.
Rest assured we are committed to your safety and satisfaction and will share additional information when we have concluded our investigation.
The Humane Team
The full email follows below.
