Humane AI Pin owners can win a free Rabbit R1 as a consolation prize

Rabbit Inc. wants to do something nice for those who bought a Humane AI Pin

(Credit: Matt Swider/The Shortcut)

• 🐰 Rabbit Inc. is giving away 500 Rabbit R1 devices to Humane AI Pin owners

• 🧱 Humane announced its AI Pin would become a brick on February 28

• 🤷‍♂️ Even though the Rabbit R1 launched to poor reviews, it’s fared a little better

• 😅 Unlike the Humane AI Pin, the $199 device is still alive and kicking for now

Rabbit Inc., the company responsible for the Rabbit R1, has announced its giving away 500 devices to Humane AI Pin owners. The announcement comes shortly after Humane shared that its AI Pin would become utterly useless on February 28.

On February 28, the Humane AI Pin will no longer connect to Humane’s servers, which prevents functionality such as calling, messaging, AI queries/responses, or cloud access. You’ll only be able to check the battery level, making the fancy lapel nothing more than an expensive broach.

The Humane AI Pin and Rabbit R1 both offered a lot of promise ahead of their respective launches. And, even though the AI-powered devices received less than stellar reviews, the Rabbit R1 has at least preserved and has received several post-launch updates.

It also helped that the Rabbit R1 costs $199 compared to the Humane AI Pin’s eye-watering $699 price, and that’s without a subscription to a cellular network.

Founder and CEO of Rabbit Inc. Jesse Lyu posted on X, “As a day 1 humane ai pin owner i feel sad that it will stop working (except for checking the battery levels) next week. Thinking if there’s something we can do to help the humane pin owners. What do you think @rabbit_hmi ?”

The Rabbit Inc. official account shortly followed up and said: “Humane ai pin owners - we’re sorry for your loss, and we’re here to help. To start, we’re giving away 500 free r1s to humane ai pin owners looking for a new ai companion.”

While it’s nice that Humane AI Pin owners might receive a new device, Rabbit is clearly using the demise of its closest competitor to improve its own public image. It’s a smart move, and provides the company with some positive press, even if it isn’t exactly the most altruistic decision. After all, you’ll need to follow the Rabbit Inc. X account, retweet the pinned post, reply with “I want an R1” and fill out a form.

Interestingly, Rabbit Inc. post says “To start”, which suggests the start-up might have some more plans in mind to attract Humane AI Pin owners to the orange side. However, I wouldn’t blame people if they were done with standalone AI devices entirely.

• Up next: Apple confirms iPhone 15 Pro is getting Visual Intelligence in future update

Adam Vjestica is The Shortcut’s Senior Editor. Formerly TechRadar’s Gaming Hardware Editor, Adam has also worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor, where he helped launch the Nintendo Switch. Follow him on X @ItsMrProducts.