The AI Pin - Humane's first, and last product - received an overwhelmingly negative reception at launch, and that's putting it mildly. The device was hindered by poor usability and an extremely laggy operating system that made even the simplest of tasks an absolute chore. The product, unsurprisingly, was criticized by almost every reviewer who touched it, and rumors regarding a potential acquisition of Humane soon began to circulate. Now, HP has seemingly finalized a $116-million acquisition offer for the startup that once raised over $230 million, and valued itself at $1 billion. It appears that HP wants almost all of Humane's assets - with the notable exception of one key product, the AI Pin.

As such, once the calendar reaches the 28th of February, the AI Pin will cease to function. The servers that the AI Pin utilized for communications will be shut down, rendering the AI Pin unable to access customer's cloud data, make phone calls, send AI queries, or text messages. Customers who bought the Pin in the last 90 days will be eligible for a full refund, whereas those who bought the ill-fated gadget before that will soon have an arguably good-looking fashion accessory that will probably still be able to tell them the time. After all, the product's build quality and design was the lone aspect of the AI Pin that received praise. It remains to be seen how HP puts Humane's R&D to use, although considering the AI hype that is engulfing the consumer tech industry, it wouldn't be surprising to see HP leverage Humane's tech to carve out its own niche in the AI-assisted personal computing space. Of course, that is contingent on HP's implementation being better than what Humane pulled off the last time around.