A former Apple designer shows off a phone that features an AI device in his hand

• A new device from Humane can display phone calls on the palm of your hand.
• The AI-focused startup was founded by Apple graduates Imran Choudhury and Bethany Bongiorno.
• Choudhury showcased the device at the 2023 TED Annual Conference.

Humane co-founder Imran Chowdhury has a vision of an artificially intelligent future where devices have a more subtle presence in the form of wearables and screens are optional.

At the 2023 TED Annual Conference in Vancouver, Canada, Chowdhury appeared to demonstrate the power of such a tool, taking a call in a somewhat unusual way midway through his presentation on Thursday.

Zarif Ali, a Toronto-based freelance journalist, tweeted a photo of the demo featuring Choudhury, a former head of design at Apple, displaying a call notification in the palm of his hand. The demo was first reported by Axios.

In a video of the event, which Ali shared with Insider, Choudhury’s speech appeared to be interrupted by the constant ringing of a call. But instead of reaching for a device in his pocket, Chowdhury simply turned his hand to look at his palm.

“Sorry, it’s my wife,” he said, looking at a flashing alert on his palm about the call. “I’ll have to get it. Chowdhury continues to take the call from his wife and co-founder of Humane and Apple colleague, Bethany Bongiorno.

“We believe AI or artificial intelligence will drive the next leap forward in device design,” he said during the presentation.

A TED representative said the video Ali shared may have been taken from a live broadcast. The representative did not participate when a videotape of the protest was made available to the public.

“Humane will release more details on how the device works in the coming months,” a company spokesperson told Insider. Choudhury and Bongiorno did not respond to insider posts seeking comment before publication.

At the event, Chowdhury also appeared to demonstrate the device’s ability to act as an assistant. At one point, he asked the device where he could buy a gift for his wife before he left town, prompting the device to make a simple response about a popular Vancouver shopping district, according to the video. which Ali shared and which was seen by Insider.

Chowdhury also demonstrated the device’s ability to quickly produce a French translation of a phrase spoken on it, repeating in an AI-generated voice similar to his own: “Invisible devices should feel so natural to use that you almost forget they are there. »

Humane revealed in March that it had raised $100 million in a Series C funding round led by Kindred Ventures. Another investor was OpenAI founder Sam Altman, who has risen to fame since the runaway success from ChatGPT.