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Humane warns AI Pin users of potential fire risk in charging case
Humane is warning customers that the charging case for its AI Pin device may pose a fire risk due to a quality issue with the battery cell from a third-party vendor.
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Oh, Humane. It seems like things can’t get much worse for the wearable AI device that’s been plagued by issues since its launch. The latest? The company is warning customers that the charging case could pose a fire risk.
Yup, a fire risk. As in, your fancy AI pin might just spark up and set your pants ablaze. Not exactly the kind of innovation we’re looking for.
In an email to the unlucky souls who actually bought the AI Pin, Humane revealed that it’s found a “quality issue” with the battery cell in the charging case, courtesy of a third-party vendor.
They’re being coy about whether anyone’s actually experienced a blaze, but the company says the dodgy batteries “may pose a fire safety risk“. That’s corporate speak for “hey, this thing might catch fire, so maybe stop using it, huh?”
Here’s the email that’s going out to customers:
Out of an abundance of caution, we are reaching out today to ask that you immediately stop using and charging your Charge Case Accessory due to an issue with certain battery cells for the Charge Case Accessory.
Upon receiving a single report of a charging issue while using a third-party USB-C cable and third-party power source, we identified a quality issue with the battery cell supplied by a third-party vendor used in your Charge Case Accessory.
Our investigation determined that the battery supplier was no longer meeting our quality standards and that there is a potential that certain battery cells supplied by this vendor may pose a fire safety risk. As a result, we immediately disqualified this battery vendor while we work to identify a new vendor to avoid such issues and maintain our high quality standards.
The issue identified is isolated only to certain battery cells used in the Charge Case Accessory and is not related to the Charge Case Accessory hardware design.
Importantly, Humane’s Ai Pin, its Battery Booster(s) and Charge Pad are not affected as the disqualified vendor does not supply batteries or any other components of those Humane products, and are safe for continued use.
While Humane hasn’t officially uttered the “R” word, they’re telling people to stop using the charging case pronto.
The good news is that your AI Pin itself, along with other charging accessories like the battery booster and charge pad, seems to be safe—they use batteries from different suppliers.
The company’s trying to make nice by offering two free months of its subscription service, but that’s a pretty weak consolation prize for a $149 accessory that might turn into a tiny firebomb. We’re still waiting to hear if they’ll refund or replace the potentially hazardous charging cases.
This is just the latest in a long line of problems for the AI Pin. From poor performance to missing features, the device’s been a dumpster fire since day one. Now, it seems the charging case might literally be a fire hazard. Yikes.
At this point, it’s hard to see how Humane can recover from the AI Pin debacle. With each new issue, they’re burning through what little trust they had left with customers.
Maybe it’s time to pull the plug on this product and go back to the drawing board. Because right now, the only thing the AI Pin seems to be good at is making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
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