Humane AI pin composite.
Human AI
Hoping for a brief respite from AI in technology? Keep dreaming as a recent report suggests that Apple has plans to make an AirTag-like gadget that will act as an AI pin badge, a future interface for Apple Intelligence.
This is according to The Informationwhich claims that Apple could launch this device in 2027.
Such an AI pin will act as the eyes and ears of an AI assistant, allowing it to see and hear just about everything you can.
To that end, it reportedly uses two cameras, one with a much wider field of view than the other, and three microphones. Such an arrangement will help Apple separate external noise from the sound of your own voice.
There’s a speaker and a physical button, which could potentially be used to take photos or as a gesture shortcut to other commands — like waking up the virtual assistant.
It’s expected to be a classier design than Apple’s AirTag, with a metal and glass exterior and slightly thicker than Apple’s tracker.
Apple AI’s future and present headaches
There are some significant hurdles ahead for this Apple AI pin, which isn’t claimed to be anything beyond the relatively early stages of development.
First, similar AI pins to date have mostly been very poorly received. The Humane AI pin essentially turned into a $700 brick when its servers went down in February 2025, less than a year after it started shipping in April 2024.
While AI assistants have grown significantly since 2024, Apple has not been at the forefront of these developments. With its own artificial intelligence lagging far behind the pioneers, Apple earlier this month announced a partnership with Google that includes using the company’s Gemini as the foundation for future Apple Intelligence models.
“After careful evaluation, we’ve determined that Google’s technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation models, and we’re excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock,” Apple said.
One aspect that has made things difficult for Apple is its above-average commitment to privacy, with a key part of Apple Intelligence using a small on-device AI model rather than one effectively running on a cloud server.
Apple’s proposed AI pin may never see an Apple Store shelf, but it’s less ambitious than it sounds. It’s intended as a companion device to an iPhone, not a standalone AI tool. Therefore, the key challenge is to capture the underlying AI interaction experience, not just the hardware of the AI pin.
