Despite seemingly having nothing else in the pipeline and the AI Pin being dead on arrival, Bloomberg reports the company is “seeking a price of between $750 million and $1 billion in a sale.”

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    14724 days ago

    So this is scam right? Overpromise on a product that doesn’t work then sell the company for some huge price because it’s cutting edge technology? Because it feels like a scam.

    • @voracitude
      link
      English
      6424 days ago

      Yeah, the product was a boondoggle. Trying to sell the company after that launch, with nothing else in the pipeline, is a scam.

    • @mPony
      link
      English
      5724 days ago

      remember how over the past few years almost everything brand new had the word “blockchain” shoehorned into it for no good reason?

      This is the same kind of thing. It’s an atrocious boondoggle. There must still be a serious amount of cocaine floating around Venture Capitalist parties, because one of those boys is gonna drop 500M on this company and think they bought the dip, when in fact they, themselves, are the dip.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        423 days ago

        I can’t even remember the last time when some hot new technology changed our lives significantly. I’m inclined to say Android because it was a new mobile OS and now it’s everywhere and various devices but even that is more than a decade old.

        • ඞmir
          link
          fedilink
          English
          323 days ago

          Bluetooth ANC IEMs/earbuds were rare a decade ago, and now I see half the people around me wearing them all day

    • @just_another_person
      link
      English
      4524 days ago

      Anything with “AI” in the title is a cash grab with very little actual technical worth except the models and training data.

      • @dustyData
        link
        English
        723 days ago

        Pretty much anything with AI on the tin is a scam. Because when an AI product gets a useful valuable application, it immediately changes name to something else.

    • @xantoxis
      link
      English
      2024 days ago

      They’re all scams. This one’s just more obvious.

    • @Evotech
      link
      English
      1824 days ago

      It’s just how the us economy works

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      -424 days ago

      Scam how? Selling pre-launch could have been a scam. Money taken from investors could have been a scam, depending on what they pitched. But selling after a complete and known flop of a release? There’s no cards left on the table to be scammy about. “Here’s our brand name. Here’s our patent collection. We’d like to think our patents are worth a ton of money, but we know we’d be lucky getting twenty million.”

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        423 days ago

        My assumption is that, since they were always going to be about collecting, processing, and selling data (usually what AI is used for commercially) that they might have what they think is between 500m and 1b in data to sell.

        This might be enough to start a company from or just to assimilate the data into your own company.

        The price tag has to be over estimated though by quite a lot. If we read a story about the company selling for a few million, I dont think it would seem outrageous.

  • @LeroyJenkins
    link
    English
    8024 days ago

    alright guys I’ll take one for the team and buy the company

    • @windie
      link
      English
      3524 days ago

      Relevant username.

          • @Crack0n7uesday
            link
            English
            223 days ago

            You obviously don’t know who Leroy Jenkins is, the laws of man do not apply.

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              123 days ago

              I’m quite familiar with their namesake lol. But if I remember correctly they all got slaughtered by the boss. So I guess some laws DO apply. Back then at least it was Murphy’s. :D

        • @Plopp
          link
          English
          323 days ago

          I’ve got some chores that need to get done, how much can I rent your guys for?

    • @theherk
      link
      English
      424 days ago

      Least I got shit pin!

  • dinckel
    link
    English
    6824 days ago

    This is the same as Ben Shapiro telling people to sell their houses once Florida goes under water from a climate crisis. To who? Neptune?

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      223 days ago

      He really said that? Lol, I’d listen to that gladly, I despise the moron. Do you have a source?

      • dinckel
        link
        English
        423 days ago

        Here. Classic example of yapping too fast and expecting people to not realize how much nonsense it is

        • @[email protected]B
          link
          fedilink
          English
          223 days ago

          Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

          Here

          Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

          I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.

    • @andallthat
      link
      English
      123 days ago

      “Spectacular custom built oceanback, home, impressive land views & only a 5 minutes swim to the beach!”

  • The Snark Urge
    link
    English
    5024 days ago

    Remember when nerds used to be smarter than us? That was awesome.

    • @kat_angstrom
      link
      English
      7524 days ago

      Nerds still are smarter than us.

      Unfortunately a cult of managers has arisen to rule over the nerds and they hype with an iron fist.

    • @wirehead
      link
      English
      3124 days ago

      It’s important to realize that the nerd you saw on the news has always been someone wearing nerd as a costume and the entire history of technology is loaded with examples of the real nerd being marginalized. It’s just that in ages past the VC’s would give a smaller amount of money and require the startup to go through concrete milestones to unlock all of it so there was more of a chance for the founder’s dreams to smack up against reality before they were $230m in the hole with no product worth selling.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        424 days ago

        20 years ago, the big question VCs were asking their startups was, “How do we convince Microsoft to buy this company?” Simpler times, back then.

  • Tiger Jerusalem
    link
    English
    4024 days ago

    This is hilarious, scrambling to get a golden parachute and live off some trust fund from the sale. The sad part is that they will probably get that.

    • @dustyData
      link
      English
      1023 days ago

      That’s the worst part. They knew the product sucked, everyone knew the product sucked, this was always the plan. Ask for a billion get 200 million. That’s 100 for each founder. Go live on a private beach somewhere.

      • @fukurthumz420
        link
        English
        123 days ago

        it’s just rich people’s money that could be used to fund housing for the masses. let me know where that beach is so i can go drop off some karma.

  • @ghewl
    link
    English
    3524 days ago

    Their adoption plan was just wrong. Few people want to give up their phones, and the general public has had enough of a learning curve struggle with mobile phones. The device didn’t make sense, at least not in its current state.

    The AI bubble will burst soon, and when it does, real innovation will happen.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      4524 days ago

      They designed a product that doesn’t solve a problem that anyone has. On top of that they designed something that doesn’t even work well.

      • @ghewl
        link
        English
        824 days ago

        Yep, at high price+monthly fee, too.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        7
        edit-2
        24 days ago

        If they had a couple of unbeatable patents that they just couldn’t figure out how to turn into products, that’s almost forgivable – you blew your launch, so you sell out to a company who has the resources to make your ideas into something the public will buy. But as far as I can tell, these guys don’t really have any IP worth buying them out for.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        423 days ago

        And it was overpriced. I can see people buying a useless toy for 50 bucks, but not for $700.

      • @AA5B
        link
        English
        123 days ago

        I never looked into it, but assumed it was just like an “echo dot”. May deserves a premium for being smaller and belatedly powered, as much as $30?

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      1324 days ago

      Even if they did want to give up their phones, they wouldn’t for anything with a two to four hour device. Let alone something that only has a mild neato factor of a low powered laser projector. Smart watches do the same shit with a longer battery life and virtually no one’s replacing their phones with those, either.

      • @dustyData
        link
        English
        223 days ago

        And even smartwatches found their own niche on the well being and health space. Since being constantly attached to your wrist they can monitor heart-rate, blood pressure, walking cadence and steps taken. A perfect sport training partner. But this thing doesn’t have any such hook.

    • @barsquid
      link
      English
      323 days ago

      They got the name from a prototype pin.

  • @EpicFailGuy
    link
    English
    24
    edit-2
    23 days ago

    Who would have guess that another overpriced solution to a non existent problem that no one wants would have been a commercial failure …

    We are in a capitalist dystopia. We could be using AI to predict energy usage and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, or help in discovering new protein folds … but no … Timmy wants to look like a cool futuristic dude and he’s willing to pay $600 to look cooler than his peers

    • @kromem
      cake
      link
      English
      1523 days ago

      We could be using AI to predict energy usage and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels

      That’s happening

      or help in discovering new protein folds

      That too.

      There’s always been barnacles on the ship of progress. That doesn’t mean it’s only barnacles.

      • @EpicFailGuy
        link
        English
        423 days ago

        “barnacles in the ship of technology”

        I really like that one. Very well put

    • @fukurthumz420
      link
      English
      623 days ago

      these people live in a delusion, chasing star trek fantasies while the general population can barely afford rent. we are truly due for the chickens to come home to roost.

      i just hope a lot of innocent animals don’t get hurt in the process.

      • Echo Dot
        link
        fedilink
        English
        3
        edit-2
        23 days ago

        Surely the Star Trek fantasy is doing the above stuff. Star Trek is all about how money doesn’t exist in the future

        The problem is they’re not creating a Star Trek future

    • @guacupado
      link
      English
      122 days ago

      Yeah their videos were what everyone wants but their actual product was way more clumsy and primitive. Technology isn’t there yet for what these guys were trying to make.

  • @BenLeMan
    link
    English
    2023 days ago

    $750m? That company worth about three fiddy.

  • Semi-Hemi-Demigod
    link
    fedilink
    1923 days ago

    I could see it being useful if it was an accessory to your phone. Not having to dig my phone out of my pocket to take a picture of something to look it up, or having a push-to-talk badge or pendant would make it more convenient, especially for folks like me who don’t wear watches. And with Bluetooth it would have decent battery life.

    But the damn thing can’t even set a timer.

    • @vallode
      link
      English
      823 days ago

      A lot of the form factor is already mostly available in smart watches. They have to, at the bare minimum, conver the bsse functionality of those before moving onto real time ai interaction that is never real time and is hardly a proper interaction.

      Progressive enhancement would be great here, smart watch in a pin form factor but with AI powered features when they make sense. Maybe some kind of super fine tuned orchestrator that know when to pass onto siri/assisstant vs. some cloud model (setting a timer requires simple parsing but a complex philosophical question can be offloaded to AI)

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1423 days ago

    I want to say up front that, I don’t feel any sympathy for the company, nor do I have any love for the ewaste they created.

    That being said, it’s a decent idea, and I would have liked to see where it went. Their implementation was completely wrong on do many points, but it was still a half decent idea. Basically having what Google assistant should have been, pinned to your chest like a comm badge sounds pretty cool. The laser projector for your hand was interesting, but very hokey, the data communication was poorly thought out, far too slow to be useful, the design wasn’t the worst, but still not great. The battery life was questionable at best…

    But the concept of what it was supposed to be able to do, was not terrible. Possibly the last terrible part of the product.

    Personally, I want a personal assistant. Since I’m not rich, I can’t exactly hire one. Having an AI assistant, that you talk to through a communications badge seems like a decent idea. I’d want it to basically run from my phone, mostly local to my phone, so my data isn’t pushed everywhere, but the tech isn’t quite there yet. Not enough TOPS, not enough memory, not enough storage for all the models; and certainly not enough battery to power AI running on your phone.

    I can see what they were going for but they fell so far short of the goal that it’s not really visible in what was delivered.

    I imagine the pitch meeting about this being something along the lines of a guy rushing in after watching Star Trek discovery, when they got the holographic comm badges, and going, I want to make that! With the Zora AI and everything! And then people jumping on the bandwagon, knowing full well that they’re not even going to come close.

    I hope everyone that works there gets new jobs in sectors that aren’t using AI as a parlor trick or buzzword to try to move units.

    Good bye, company I don’t care enough to remember the name of. We hardly knew you, and even that was probably too much interaction.

    • @mriormro
      link
      English
      122 days ago

      Absolutely none of this was a good idea.