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Humane AI upgrade more than$230 millionbefore it even shipped a product . And when it eventually released its Ai Pin — which costs $ 699 plus a $ 24 monthly subscription — jolly much every tech reader come in to the same unsatisfying realization : This much - hyped product , which promises todisrupt the smartphone ’s dominance , is not very practiced .
Yet some onlooker are declaring that Marques Brownlee , the hugely democratic YouTuber known as MKBHD , will be single - handedly responsible for if the ship’s company eventually fail . Soon after Humane AI drop its long - awaited product , the conversation develop away from the merchandise itself and instead toward how Brownlee address about it in his own review .
Brownlee’svideotitle is admittedly a bit clicky : “ The Worst ware I ’ve Ever Reviewed … For Now . ” But when you view the factual video , the title drive home on its hope .
“ It was really intemperate to add up up with a title for this telecasting , ” Brownlee says in the review , which presently has over 5 million views . “ But I will say , at one percentage point , my working rubric for this was , ‘ This product is either the dumbest matter ever , or I ’m an idiot . ’ ”
Still , the follow-up kick off a vortex on social media .
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Another tech content creator , Alex Finn , wrote on X : “ MKBHD bankrupted a company in 41 seconds , ” referring to the hatchway of his TV . Finn later append , “ If this television never came out , they would have sold so many more . ”
As the conversation pick up steam , MKBHD twirp back to Vassallo , saying , “ We differ on what my caper is . ”
When make for scuttlebutt , Vassallo say , “ Many people thought I was defending Humane or its product . I was n’t . My watching was about MKBHD ’s ordered series of influence and how that power deserves more rigor than the sensational newspaper headline on YouTube : ‘ The Worst Product I ’ve Ever Reviewed . ’ The power to crush a society should n’t be take lightly , and that newspaper headline is what most people will see . The actual review was bonnie and balanced . ”
An underdog worth $800 million
Critics of MKBHD ’s telecasting are operate as though Humane AI is an underdog in the distance . But this is n’t a green , other - stage inauguration trying its mitt at build newfangled hardware . This is a ship’s company that raised a Series C round and attracted investor like Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff , OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and various top venture capital house before consumer even got their hands on the product .
“ Call me misanthropical , but I ’m suspicious of startup with vast war chests of capital but no commercialised product to speak of , ” TechCrunch newsman Kyle Wiggerswroteafter last year ’s Series C heave .
When asked for comment , MKBHD directed TechCrunch to his newerYouTube responseto the situation .
“ All that any honest review in reality does is just speed whatever was already start on , ” he order in thevideo .
Less than a day after posting it , the follow - up video has over 2 million view .
This is n’t an isolated incident for MKBHD . The YouTuber was also criminate of inciting the ruin of EV inauguration Fisker after he negatively reviewed the Fisker Ocean railcar in a similarly titled video last calendar month : “ This is the Worst Car I ’ve Ever Reviewed . ”
After Brownlee stake his follow-up , Fiskerlaid off 15 % of its staffand stop product . But Fisker was already in barren fall before Brownlee said that the Fisker Ocean was the spoiled elevator car he ’d ever reviewed . Indeed , at the time , it revealed in a regulatory filing spy by TechCrunch that it had just$121 millionleft in the bank .
More , in the month premise the MKBHD inspection , federal guard regulators began investigating the Fisker Ocean for complaint about thebrakes not working well . TechCrunch separatelylearnedthat Ocean driver had been complaining to Fisker about poor brake performance , faulty cardinal fobs and sudden power loss for months . One client wrote to Fisker that they reverence for their animation when their railway car dead lost power while ride on the 405 thruway in Los Angeles .
So is Fisker break because it put out a perilously hapless product , or is it because a very popular YouTuber said that the motorcar is high-risk ?
gratefully , Humane AI ’s subpar flag wo n’t put anyone in deathly danger . But these parallel incident expose the same mislaid craze at Brownlee over his fair critique of troublesome products .
An uncomfortable yet familiar critique
Some Black tekki viewed the review of MKBHD through a different electron lens . “ If Brownlee were anything other than Black , this would be ‘ an fair review that clamber a light on the AI bubble , ’ ” one Black founder told TechCrunch . “ Instead , he ’s ‘ rough , ’ and ‘ it ’s not average that he can bankrupt such a well - fund company . He should be more refined in his critique . ’ In a world full of shams and shammer , Marques should do precisely what he think is correct . And he did . ”
Some also observed in unfavorable judgment of Brownlee ’s review so - calledtone policing , a proficiency used to send packing especially what bleak the great unwashed say based on how a message is delivered versus the content of the subject matter .
Indeed , one Black investor note to TechCrunch that Brownlee ’s critical review hits on two bias in tech : “ technical school has issues with preconception against Black people . technical school has issues with the medium being a critic [ and ] not a cheerleader , so of course , tech has issues with a Black tech media take that is critical of fanboy topics like AI and IoT. ”
Either fashion , it ’s notable that a YouTuber is perceived as having the power to make or break a companionship .
In an interview with fellow YouTuber interviewersColin and Samirlast workweek , Brownlee mull on a preceding era of media when technical school reviewers at The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times were some of the only voices that consumer sought out for their judgement on new tech . Now , anyone on the internet can have a say , regardless of their institutional affiliation .
“ When a YouTube television of mine goes up on a production , there are very often C others going up on the same product around the same time , ” he said . “ There are so many more voices now . ”
MKBHD says yes to Google Glass , no to the metaverse
