Jay Peters, writing at The Verge:
Humane is selling most of its company to HP for $116 million and will stop selling AI Pin, the company announced today.
AI Pins that have already been purchased will continue to function normally until 3PM ET on February 28th, Humane says in a support document. After that date, Pins will “no longer connect to Humane’s servers.” As a result, AI Pin features will “no longer include calling, messaging, AI queries / responses, or cloud access.” Humane is also encouraging users to download any pictures, videos, and notes stored on their Pins before they are permanently deleted at that shutdown time.
After the shutdown, offline features like “battery level” will still work, Humane says, but “any function that requires cloud connectivity like voice interactions, AI responses, and .Center access” will not.
If you bought a pin in the last 90 days, you can get a refund. If not, you will soon have a paperweight.
For its $116 million, HP is getting “key AI capabilities from Humane, including their AI-powered platform Cosmos, highly skilled technical talent, and intellectual property with more than 300 patents and patent applications,” according to a press release.
As John Gruber reminded everyone, Humane has been trying to sell itself for nine months, and was looking for a price between $750 million and $1 billion.