Doctors are more like machines': my mother's worrying reliance on AI for health advice Tired of a two-day commute to see her overworked doctor, my mother turned to tech for help with her kidney disease. E very few months, my mother, a 57-year-old kidney transplant patient who lives in a small city in eastern China, embarks on a two-day journey to see her doctor. She fills her backpack with a change of clothes, a stack of medical reports and a few boiled eggs to snack on. Then, she takes a 90-minute ride on a high-speed train and checks into a hotel in the eastern metropolis of Hangzhou. At 7am the next day, she lines up with hundreds of others to get her blood taken in a long hospital hall that buzzes like a crowded marketplace. In the afternoon, when the lab results arrive, she makes her way to a specialist's clinic. She gets about three minutes with the doctor. Then, my mother packs up and starts the long commute home. My mother began using China's leading AI chatbot to diagnose her symptoms this past winter. She would lie down on her couch and open the app on her iPhone. "Hi," she said in her first message to the chatbot, on 2 February. How can I assist you today?" the system responded instantly, adding a smiley emoji.

OpenAI has fully acquired Io, a joint venture it cocreated last year with Jony Ive, the famed British designer behind the sleek industrial aesthetic that defined the iPhone and more than two decades of Apple products. In a nearly 10-minute video posted to X on Wednesday, Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the Apple pioneer's "creative collective" will "merge with OpenAI to work more intimately with the research, engineering, and product teams in San Francisco." OpenAI says it's paying 5 billion in equity to acquire Io. The promotional video included musings on technology from both Ive and Altman, set against the golden-hour backdrop of the streets of San Francisco, but the two never share exactly what it is they're building. "We look forward to sharing our work next year," a text statement at the end of the video reads.

The day the Humane Ai Pin died, it was also reborn. Or at least, there was hope. On February 28, shortly after noon Pacific time, Humane switched off its servers supporting its contentious Ai Pin--essentially bricking a 700 device that was less than a year old. Minutes later, in a Discord voice chatroom with the label "The death of Ai Pin," one member of a band of dedicated hackers, determined to keep their Pins alive, let the rest of the group in on a secret. He had the codes they needed to get through Humane's encryption.

The story of the infamous Humane Ai Pin is coming to an end. This week, the company announced that HP--known for its computers and printers that always seem to need a refill--will acquire several assets from Humane in a 116 million deal expected to close at the end of the month. HP will get more than 300 patents and patent applications, a few Humane employees--including founders Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno--and Humane's Cosmos operating system. Late in 2024, Humane looked to license this operating system so that third parties could inject the AI voice assistant into other products, like cars. Humane became Silicon Valley's "next big thing" in late 2023 when it unveiled its AI wearable, equipped with a ChatGPT-powered assistant and a laser-projected display, that promised to replace your smartphone.

The tricky thing about naming the year's biggest losers in tech is that in 2024, it once again felt like everyone lost. Amid the depressing spiral that is social media, the will-they-or-won't-they dance of banning TikTok in the US and the neverending edited and deepfaked content that has everyone questioning what's real, the world lost. But a few areas this year stood out as particularly troubling. Specifically, AI and dedicated AI gadgets proliferated more than ever, spreading not only to our digital assistants and search engines but to our wearables as well. We also saw more deterioration in Intel's standing and bid farewell to a robot maker, as well as Lightning cables.

Silicon Valley startup Humane has told users to stop using the charging case that came with its AI Pin, citing safety concerns. In an email, the firm asks users to'immediately stop using and charging your Charge Case' due to an issue with'certain battery cells'. Battery cells – containers that chemically store energy in the charger – are defective and'may pose a fire safety risk', it warns. AI Pin is the bizarre gadget that projects a display onto your palm, but it's been blasted for issues including overheating and AI that delivers'incorrect answers'. It comes as Humane reportedly attempts to sell itself to US tech giant HP for around 1 billion.

The tech startup Humane is seeking a buyer for its business, just a bit over a month since it released the AI Pin, according to Bloomberg. Engadget's Cherlynn Low described the AI Pin as a "wearable Siri button," because it's a small device you can wear that was designed with a very specific purpose in mind: To give you ready access to an AI assistant. Humane is working with a financial adviser, Bloomberg said, and is apparently hoping to sell for anywhere between 750 million and 1 billion. The company drummed up a lot of interest and successfully raised 230 million from high-profile investors. However, a billion may be a huge ask when its AI pin was mostly panned by critics upon launch. We gave the AI Pin a score of 50 out of 100 in our review due to several reasons.

After years of development, startup Humane launched a 700 wearable in early April that leans heavily on artificial intelligence. The original pitch for the Ai Pin was that you no longer need to juggle different apps; its operating system can "search for the right AI at the right moment," allowing it to play music, translate languages, and even tell you how much protein is in a palmful of almonds. And because it doesn't have a traditional display, the Ai pin was supposed to be a tiny tincture for the disease of screentime; smartphones were on their way out. The pin has been panned. WIRED's Julian Chokkattu scored the Ai Pin a 4 out of 10. Popular YouTuber Marques Brownlee complimented the device's hardware design but still called it "The Worst Product I've Ever Reviewed … For Now." The company has since massaged the message that it's meant to replace your phone.

Reviews are in for a tiny 700 wearable computer, less than 2 square-inches in size, made by two former Apple employees who promised a breakthrough'iPhone killer.' And they haven't been kind: Humane's AI Pin has been called'The Worst Product I've Ever Reviewed' garnering low 4-out-of-10 scored from major tech publications. The device -- which is worn on the user's lapel, answers spoken commands via AI, and projects a tiny screen onto their hand -- has been criticized for hardware that overheats in just'a couple of minutes,' AI that delivers'incorrect answers' and worse. Now, Humane's employees and engineers have admitted that the AI Pin, which also requires a 24 monthly subscription plan, is'frustrating sometimes' and that the harsh reviews have been'honest' and'solid.' It's yet to be seen if the public will prefer tapping an object on their chest as opposed to pulling their phone out of their pocket Some tech industry boosters lashed out at influential YouTuber reviewer Marques Brownlee, whose negative review of the AI Pin has 3.7 million views, accusing him of'carelessness' for'potentially killing someone else's nascent project' with his critique.

Imagine it: you're on the bus or walking in the park, when you remember some important task has slipped your mind. You were meant to send an email, catch up on a meeting, or arrange to grab lunch with a friend. Without missing a beat, you simply say aloud what you've forgotten and the small device that's pinned to your chest, or resting on the bridge of your nose, sends the message, summarises the meeting, or pings your buddy a lunch invitation. The work has been taken care of, without you ever having to prod the screen of your smartphone. It's the sort of utopian convenience that a growing wave of tech companies are hoping to realise through artificial intelligence.