HP has moved to shore up the AI capability of their notebook’s tablets and communication devices with the acquisition of Humane the maker of a wearable Ai Pin.
Humane owners initially placed a valuation on the business of between $1.18 billion and A$1.6 billion but after negative reviews and product problems with their AI pin they finally sold out to HP for $182 million.
The deal will include the majority of Humane’s employees in addition to its software platform and intellectual property claims HP.
As for Humane’s Ai pin device business, this will be wound down, with HP set to form a new division using the intellectual property and AI knowledge of Humane’s employees to beef up their AI capabilities. 
Humane’s team, including founders Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno who have been tasked with setting up the new division to integrate artificial intelligence into HP personal computers, printers and connected conference room devices.
Both Chaudhri and Bongiorno were design and software engineers at Apple before founding the startup.
In April 2024, Humane launched a much-hyped wearable device meant to allow users to access AI models, calls, and texts via voice or gesture.
The startup pitched the Ai Pin as an eventual smartphone replacement, it failed to take off resulting in HP killing off the device after tech media in the USA slamming the device when reviewed.
There were also reports of glitches and a “quality issue” that led to a risk of fire.
The startup had raised over $230 million and counted backers such as Salesforce Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff.
In a report on Bloomberg Tran said he was particularly impressed with aspects of Humane’s design, such as the ability to orchestrate AI models running both on-device and in the cloud.
The deal is expected to close at the end of the month, HP said.
At one point Humane owners tried re-branding around what it called Cosmos, an AI operating system for a slew of devices in the home and on-the-go.
Their new type of architecture is built around AI agents.
ChannelNews understands that this technology could make its way into HP devices.
HP is the same Company that failed to commercialise WebOS after acquiring it from Palm.
The software was first developed by Palm as a mobile operating system, it was released in 2009 as Palm webOS.
Hewlett Packard acquired Palm in April 2010 and used the OS in a number of Palm and HP smartphones, they also modified the OS for its tablet PCs, including Touchpad devices but when this failed the software, and the intellectual IP was sold to LG Electronics.
HP is spruiking cost, security, and speed as benefits of delivering some generative AI features locally, rather than through the cloud.
Last year it launched a line of computers with semiconductors optimized for on-device AI.
“There will be a time and place for pure AI devices,” Tran said. “But there is going to be AI in all our devices — that’s how we can help our business customers be more productive.”
