What Happened to Humane? The AI Pin, the HP Deal and the Shutdown

Humane shut down its AI Pin after HP bought most of the company's assets for $116 million in February 2025. Sales stopped straight away, and the Pin's cloud service ended on 28 February 2025, so the devices lost their AI features, including calls, messages and answers. Humane's engineers and its CosmOS software moved to HP. The Pin is not sold anywhere today, and only buyers from the last 90 days were offered refunds.

The Ambition

Humane set out to build a new kind of computer: not a phone, and not an accessory for one. The AI Pin clipped to your clothes and had no screen. You spoke to it, and it answered by voice or by projecting text onto your palm with a small laser. It also had a camera. The idea was technology that asked for less of your attention, not more.

That ambition mattered. Even before the Pin shipped, it changed how people talked about AI hardware.

The Product and the Response

When the Pin reached buyers in April 2024, reviews were harsh. Short battery life, overheating and the usefulness of many features all drew criticism, and the $699 price plus a $24 monthly subscription made those problems harder to forgive. In October 2024 Humane cut the price to $499, and its charging case was recalled over a fire risk. Some people liked the idea of a screenless assistant; few kept using it.

None of this is unusual for first-generation hardware. What made Humane different was how much money and attention it had raised before anyone had tried the product.

The Acquisition and Shutdown

In February 2025, HP agreed to buy most of Humane's assets for $116 million, including its engineers and product managers and its CosmOS AI operating system. Humane stopped selling the Pin and said its service would end on 28 February 2025. After that, the Pin could no longer reach Humane's servers, which meant no calls, messages, AI answers or cloud access. Humane said only customers who had bought in the last 90 days would get refunds.

That is the lesson many buyers took from Humane: an AI device that depends on one company's cloud can stop working overnight. We cover what to check before you buy in What Happens to Your Data When an AI Wearable Company Shuts Down?

Why It Still Matters

Humane made a set of questions concrete. What happens when computing leaves the screen? How much interaction is too much? What does it mean for a device to live with you rather than demand your attention?

The AI Pin did not answer them, but the questions stuck. Many of the voice-first wearables now on sale or coming soon, from pendants to rings, are trying to answer them more simply. Compare it with the device it was most often set against in Rabbit R1 vs Humane AI Pin, and see what to buy instead in Humane AI Pin Alternatives in 2026.

Where Legend Fits

Legend One takes a narrower job than the AI Pin: remembering your conversations, not replacing your phone. It is a voice-first AI memory pendant made for people with ADHD, worn at chest height and on all day, with a Halo light when it is active. It is not a medical device and does not treat ADHD. Legend turns your conversations into text, with no audio to play back and none kept in your account, and gives you daily summaries and auto-generated to-dos in the Legend App. Legend still captures audio to create the transcript, so recording and consent laws may apply where you live. It is $499 USD including the first year of membership, with free worldwide shipping. Orders ship within 30 days, then arrive in about 14 business days. See how it works.

The Takeaway

Humane's AI Pin was an ambitious, screenless attempt at a new kind of computer that did not survive its first generation. HP bought most of Humane's assets for $116 million in February 2025, and the Pin's service ended on 28 February 2025. Its legacy is the questions it raised, and a reminder to ask what happens to a device if the company behind it is sold.

FAQ

What happened to Humane? HP bought most of Humane's assets, including its engineers and its CosmOS software, for $116 million in February 2025. Humane stopped selling the AI Pin.

Does the Humane AI Pin still work? No. Its service shut down on 28 February 2025, so it can no longer make calls, send messages, answer questions or reach the cloud.

Can you still buy a Humane AI Pin? No. Sales stopped when the HP deal was announced in February 2025.

Did AI Pin owners get refunds? Only some. Humane said customers who had bought in the last 90 days could get a refund.

Sources: TechCrunch and Tom's Hardware, February 2025; Humane on Wikipedia for launch dates and prices. Checked 1 November 2026.