Layoffs 2024: Sam Altman-backed AI startup Humane fires employees before shipping viral AI pin

Humane, OpenAI’s Sam Altman-backed AI company is laying off 4 per cent of its employees this week, reported The Verge. The report revealed that this is a cost-cutting measure that the company has to take before shipping its most headlining product in 5 years called AI Pin. Notably, the employees were informed that the company budget will be lowered this year. This layoff impacted a total of 10 people.

It was recently announced that Humane had raised over $200 million from Silicon Valley, including tech luminaries like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. This five-year-old AI startup is founded by Apple designers Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno.

Bongiorno also wrote on LinkedIn, that this is a “part of a wider refresh of our organizational structure as our company evolves with purpose for this next phase of growth. These evolutions of growth can sadly also mean making difficult decisions for some, in this case we want to extend our sincere gratitude to 10 members of the team who we’ve parted ways with at Humane.”

Humane AI Pin is a wearable gadget that aims to reduce screen time and transform how we interact with technology. Once you attach it to any piece of your clothing, you can give voice commands, make audio calls, send messages, translate languages, control smart home devices and more.

The virtual assistant plays a big role in the new device. The assistant is powered by technologies from the creator of ChatGPT, OpenAI, and gets cloud computing power from Microsoft. The Pin's virtual assistant can help in composing messages in the user's tone of voice. It also offers a "Catch Me Up" feature which will scan your emails and summarise them for you. The device can also act like a live interpreter to translate to and from different languages.

In terms of pricing, the Humane AI pin is priced at $699 which translates to Rs 58,000. In addition to this, you will also have to pay $24 (approx Rs 2,000) as a subscription fee. You will also need a good internet connection to operate the AI Pin.

The company has officially announced that the AI Pin is set to be shipped in March 2024.

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