Its universally derided AI pin was a flop, so Humane now pivoting to software. The company just released a video showing how its CosmOS software could work in other devices like a car, TV and smart speaker as “an AI operating system built for a universe of connected devices.” The only problem is that the software was a big part of what made the AI pin bad, and much of what Humane shows are “simulated experiences” for “illustrative purposes” rather than the AI in actual use.
The video starts out with a person talking to CosmOS in a car (with the brand blurred out), asking for takeout restaurant suggestions and when guests are coming over, and commanding it to turn up the thermostat. Once at home, the user asks an unknown smart speaker (again, blurred out) for a recipe and a soccer player’s scoring stats from their smart TV. “I didn’t have to specify the player,” the person states. “CosmOS is just using the context of what’s on the screen to answer.”
Then, this AI-empowered individual notes that he has CosmOS on his phone, and asks it to read an email and tell him if he needs to follow up with anything. After some to-and-fro, the AI finds space on the user’s calendar and schedules an appointment with an RSVP.
Humane notes that CosmOS is device and LLM agnostic, so it can work on cars, mobile devices, PCs, wearables and more. “And as we get closer to releasing our SDK to the public, developers and enterprise will easily be able to add and integrate their agents data and services to CosmOS, leveraging the powerful ecosystem to provide even more utility to all types of devices and platforms,” according to the voiceover.
If Humane is selling its OS as an AI option for third -party devices, it has some stiff competition. As Cherlynn Low noted in our Engadget review, its AI pin wasn’t much better than a Google search for information and was slower. Though it did have some useful features like context for follow-up questions, that’s the least of things for any AI assistant in 2024. With all that, it seems that any company building the devices it shows (cars, TVs, phones, etc.) are more likely to consider OpenAI, Gemini, or other far more credible players for an AI assistant.
