Some Dos and Don’ts of Using the Humane Ai Pin.

I’ve been wearing the Ai Pin for a month now, I love it, and this is how I’m using it. It’s not yet what I imagine it can be, but it’s an awful lot better than the reviews made it seem.

(Quotes from the Ai Mic are real but names addresses and phone numbers are edited.)

DON’T try to replace your phone.

I understand a small number of users are looking for an AI-driven Light Phone, some sort of feature-phone/ai-assistant hybrid. That’s fine.

Most of us, I believe, should view the Pin as an AI companion device, an assistant tool, with its limited phone-like functionality merely an extension of its other utility. I view the ability to make voice calls with the Pin as primarily a way to connect quickly to another person for a quick conversation, like ordering delivery or making a reservation. The ability to send non-multimedia texts to one or two contacts at a time lets you share things like addresses, showtimes, facts, and whatever other info the Pin finds for you.

DO speak to your Pin in your natural language

Take as long as you need (up to 30 seconds) and just talk like a person is listening on the other end and is ready to do something on your phone for you. It’s a fairly forgiving listener. Look at the “Ai Mic” history in humane.center, you’ll find all sorts of mistranslations of what you actually said but the Pin understanding what you meant anyway.

Is it true that when the office cast saying that 9 million minutes song Grill didn’t know They were going to do it and that it’s like some sort of Real reaction
Yes, it’s true. When the cast of ‘The Office’ sang the ‘9,986,000 Minutes’ song, Steve Carell did not know about it beforehand, and his reaction was genuine.

DO tell the Pin to remember stuff.

Whenever you think of some preference of yours or anyone close to you, any preference of any kind (movies, songs, plays, tv shows, food, musicians, books, genres, topics, peeves, beliefs, values, anniversaries, grocery list items) tell the Pin to “Remember” them.

If I tell it to “Remember I’m into pasta and seafood,” weeks later when I ask it to find a dinner spot in a new town, the question will include preferences like this, and I’ll probably get pasta and seafood surfaced.

Have it remember the stuff it surfaces for you in its searches too, like lists of things to buy or look up or consider. The longer you use it like this, the better it seems to get.

DON’T keep secrets on it.

The UI is voice-driven and therefore, in a sense, public. Yes, you can use headphones, but if the purpose of the Pin’s memories is to incorporate them into your queries, then you will never quite know when something you’ve told it to remember will be incorporated into a response meant for others to hear.

DON’T muck around with the Notes,

those things that are created when you tell it to remember something. When you look in humane.center at these long term memories on the Pin it’s a little messy to our human eyes. I say don’t mess with this too much.

Sure, I wouldn’t write “Rhonda loves cappuccino. Rhonda loves cappuccino.” for my own personal use, but when I think of that statement as a memory encoding technique, I get it. She does kind of double-love cappuccino. So I let the Notes form themselves for the most part, and just tell the Pin what I want it to remember.

DO travel with it.

Ask the Pin what there is to do around here when you’re in a new town. It’s just quite good at that. You can narrow down your options and get the info you need to do whatever you choose very quickly.

DO give the Pin step by step instructions.

Just now, I told the Pin:

Help me find a delicious inexpensive thin crust pizza for delivery around here right now
Vinny’s N.Y. Pizza & Grill, Penny’s Chicago Pizza, and Double Zero Pizza Bar are all good options for thin crust pizza delivery nearby. Vinny’s and Double Zero have high ratings and are open until 10 PM and 9 PM respectively. Penny’s is open until midnight.

What’s the number to Penny’s
The number for Penny’s Chicago Pizza is (202) 555–0111.

Call that number

Two minutes and thirty seconds later my pizza is ordered and on its way. I gave them my phone’s number, not the Ai Pin’s, when asked.

When I tried it without taking a step-by-step method immediately afterward:

Find a delicious inexpensive thin crust pizza for delivery around here right now and call the one that’s best reviewed.
Sending the message, “Find a delicious inexpensive thin crust pizza…”

I had to throw my hand up, recognizing the Pin responding with the message it uses when it’s preparing to send a text message. The laser display came up and I was able to unsend a text instructing my dear friend Mo to order me a pizza.

Step by step. Ask the Pin to do things you intend to build upon. This is especially true with texts.

DON’T bother syncing contacts.

Make them directly on humane.center as you need them. For the most part, continue to call and text people on your phone. Needing to message or call someone using the Pin is a different thing because it has its own number (for better or for worse).

I didn’t bother setting up a Tidal account either. I have some headphones on the way that I will pair with it, so maybe that will change.

DO add the Ai Pin as a contact in your phone and your phone as a contact in the Pin.

Useful for transferring things to a screen.

DO give a detailed command when texting things to your contacts.

What pizza places around here are still open for delivery
Penny’s Pizza & Grill and Ray’s New York Pizza are closing soon at 10 PM. Domino’s Pizza is open until midnight. Papa Johns Pizza is open until 1 AM, and Sarpino’s Pizzeria is open until 4 AM.

Can you give me the phone numbers for all of those
Penny’s Pizza & Grill: (202) 555–0484. Ray’s New York Pizza: (202) 555–9131. Domino’s Pizza: (202) 555–0120. Papa Johns Pizza: (202) 555–0101. Sarpino’s Pizzeria: (202) 555–4095.

Great. Now send that list of pizza place phone numbers to John Hayes.

The simplest command form, “Text that to John” is more error prone on the contact matching and is more likely to be taken literally.

Text that to John Hayes.
Sending message “Text Dad” to John Hayes.

No text the address of Penny’s to John Hayes
Sending message “The address of Penny’s” to John Hayes.

What is the address of Penny’s
The address of Penny’s Pizza is 123 Main St, New York, New York 10010

Send that address to John Hayes
Sending message “The address of Penny’s Pizza is 123 Main St, New York, New York 10010.” to John Hayes.

DO use full names when naming contacts to text or call.

Be haunted by the knowledge that your messages truly could go to the wrong person if you are not perfectly clear. Don’t risk being unclear about who you want to reach. Use the full name.

DON’T try to send images with it

One of the Pin’s biggest shortfalls: it can take pictures and it can text but it can’t send multimedia messages so it can’t send (or receive) pictures over text.

DO shop with it. DON’T expect it to buy things for you yet.

Ask the Pin for suggestions and where to buy things and ultimately get enough info that you can look at a screen. The day may be coming that the Pin can buy things for you online based on instruction, but we’re far from that level of trust. Information retrieval is a useful enough feature.

What’s a cheap alternative to Brooklynn washed linen sheets without sacrificing quality
A good, affordable alternative to Brooklinen washed linen sheets is the Quince Linen Sheet Set. It costs $159.90 and has a high rating for quality.

Where do I get that
You can buy the Quince Linen Sheet Set from the Quince website. They are also available on third-party sites like Poshmark and ModeSens.

DO satisfy your curiosities.

The Pin is a concise ChatGPT. The answers it gives tend to be short enough to be read aloud and dense enough to still be useful. Here’s a small sample of some of mine. Everyone’s will be radically different, but during moments of solitude or discussion with others, it’s funny what you and others will want to ask it or tell it.

What state has the highest concentration of clown colleges
California has the highest concentration of clown colleges, especially in cities like Los Angeles

What is the hard problem of Consciousness
The hard problem of consciousness is the challenge of explaining why and how physical processes in the brain give rise to subjective experiences, or qualia. It seeks to understand why mental states are conscious rather than nonconscious. This concept was notably formulated by philosopher David Chalmers in 1995.

Look at the snail I’m pointing at here and tell me whatever facts you can discern about it Identify it or just any information you might have
It’s a brown snail.

Is brown snail like a type of snail
Yes, a brown snail is a type of snail. One specific species is the Brown Garden Snail, scientifically known as Cornu aspersum.

DO game with it.

What are what is an Easter egg that happens early in the game South Park the fractured but whole
An early Easter egg in ‘South Park: The Fractured But Whole’ happens when you try to enter Cartman’s basement. Cartman accuses you of cheating, referencing the player’s knowledge of the code from ‘South Park: The Stick of Truth’.

What is that passcode
Unable to see a passcode. Please provide more details or show it clearly.

What is the passcode to get into Cartman’s basement
The passcode is ‘FuckYouMom’.

What’s an obscure Fallout 3 Quest I can find and where is it on the map
An obscure quest in Fallout 3 is ‘Just for the Taste of It.’ It’s an unmarked quest that takes place at the Nuka-Cola plant and Red Racer factory. Completing it can reward you with 250 to 400 caps.

What are some landmarks around that area And like which quadrant is it in
The Nuka-Cola plant and Red Racer factory are in the southwest quadrant of the Capital Wasteland. The Red Racer factory is northeast of the Nuka-Cola plant. Both are on the outskirts of southwestern Washington, D.C.

DO turn on the Beta version of Vision

https://humane.center/account/devices

With Vision turned on, the Pin will guess when you’re talking about something that it should see (usually triggered by talking about “this” or “that” or starting with “Look”) and will take a picture to pair with your command.

What kind of Vespa is this and how much is it
This is a yellow Vespa Primavera 150 S, and it costs $5,899.

It’s a neat feature for translation or asking questions in the context of what you’re looking at, but not super useful yet in my opinion. Like the rest of the Pin, I can imagine a very interesting future for it.

DO get the auto-update of the Pin’s software

The software it ships with is 1.1.1 today. It’s the main culprit for the issues you may have heard about in the release-day reviews. Version 1.1.3 is out and 1.1.4 is coming as I write, both are big improvements.

Here’s the best way to ensure you get the software update:

1. Get it on wifi
2. Take it off & put the booster back on
3. Unlock it while it’s off your shirt
4. Put it on the charge pad and ensure it’s charging
5. Leave it overnight

This should make sure you get the latest version, which makes a huge difference.

DO get on the Humane Discord

The Humane Discord over at https://discord.gg/humane is the place to be for talking to others about more DOs and DON’Ts, getting support from the community and the team, and learning about the beta program and upcoming changes. Several Humane employees hang out in there, and the community of Pin owners is friendly and definitely passes the vibe check.

What else?

Got more DOs and DON’Ts? Think I’m wrong about one of mine? Please share them, perhaps I’ll do another post like this after another month of using the Pin. Thanks for reading!