At a time when everything is being rewritten with artificial intelligence, Humane has taken it one step further by introducing CosmOS, an OS in its operating system series that seeks to improve every facet of how we are able to interact with our smart devices smartphones, and cars to smart speakers and TVs.
However, while the company has received attention, its flagship product, the Ai Pin, has not seen the success it had hoped for. Despite this, the firm's latest efforts mean that it's penetrating the AI industry deeper this time.
The Rise and Fall of the Ai Pin
Humane, which is a San Francisco-based startup that has caught attention with its Ai Pin — a wearable AI device aimed at being a companion to your smartphone and an always-on assistant. However, not so great reception. According to TechCrunch, sales proved to be less than expected, and reports of product returns higher than sales paint quite a bleak picture for the company.
In response to this, Humane cut the price of the Ai Pin from $700 to $500; it is still not known whether this will help resuscitate the product.
Despite the challenges it had with the Ai Pin, Humane has not lost its direction of creating a more intelligent and interconnected world. The company is far from running dry on resources, with more than $230 million in funding, and continues to move forward with its next big project: CosmOS.
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Introducing CosmOS: Its Newly-Molded AI Assistant
CosmOS is the heart of Humane's strategy, an operating system that the company claims integrates seamlessly across various devices.
In a recent demo on YouTube, Humane showcased CosmOS running on a range of tech, including cars, smart speakers, TVs, and smartphones. The operating system works as an advanced voice assistant with AI agent-like capabilities, making it capable of performing complex tasks and managing multiple device interactions simultaneously.
How CosmOS Can Change the Smart Device Ecosystem
CosmOS comes to mind with existing voice assistants such as Amazon's Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple's Siri. However, this one offers a significant improvement over them.
While voice assistants can simply set alarms or play music, CosmOS is claimed to understand much more and interact much more deeply. It can give answers to complex questions, act on behalf of the user, and even handle cross-device actions.
For example, a user asks CosmOS to adjust the home temperature and what time guests will arrive from their car during the demo. Such multitasking is a peek into how the operating system might change the daily interaction flow. But as with many demos, it was still a conceptual illustration. The logos of the car and smart speaker were blurred out in the video, indicating that such vision is still in the very early stages.
Multimodal Interaction: The Future of AI-Powered Convenience
One of the highlights of CosmOS is its multimodal interaction across devices. In the demo video, the AI assistant responds not only to voice commands but also analyzes visual cues to enhance its responses.
For instance, when asking about a soccer player's performance, the AI recognizes the player on the TV screen and gives relevant data on their goals for the season. This is exactly the sort of intelligent, context-aware interaction many tech enthusiasts hope to see with future smart assistants.
Already impressive on smartphones, CosmOS is also able to understand the on-screen content: manage events in the calendar, for example, or answer a user prompt based on what's displayed. That is the future when voice assistants become not only a tool, but an integral part of the digital experience of a user who has their needs automatically recognized by any number of devices and platforms.
Will CosmOS Share the Same Breath With iOS and Other OS?
Despite the hype behind CosmOS, the demo video comes across more as a pitch than a product launch. Humane has still not released a working copy of the operating system. Its adoption by third-party developers is also yet to be known.
The company has hinted at a future where CosmOS integrates with external data and services, but whether this will happen depends on the ability of Humane to convince developers to build on their platform.
