On a recent afternoon, I held a bagel in front of me and said: “Look and tell me if this is healthy.”
最近的一个下午，我捧起一个贝果，说：“看看它，告诉我它是否健康。”

A monotone voice responded that the bagel was unhealthy because it was high in carbohydrates, which could contribute to weight gain.
一个没有感情的声音回答说，贝果并不健康，因为它含有大量碳水化合物，会导致体重增加。

I wasn’t talking to a tech bro obsessed with the ketogenic diet. This was the Ai Pin, a $700 tiny computer featuring a virtual assistant pulling data from OpenAI (the research firm behind the ChatGPT chatbot), Google, Microsoft and others to answer questions and perform tasks.
我不是在和一个痴迷于生酮饮食的技术兄弟聊天。这是Ai Pin，一台售价700美元的微型电脑，它配备了一个虚拟助手，可以从OpenAI（ChatGPT聊天机器人背后的研发公司）、谷歌、微软和其他公司获取数据，来回答问题并执行任务。

Shaped like a lapel pin that may be a throwback to “Star Trek,” it attaches to your clothing with magnets and is supposed to offload tasks you would normally do with a smartphone, like taking notes, searching the web and shooting photos. Instead of a screen, the pin shines a green laser on your hand to show text. The device includes a camera, speaker and cellular connection.
它的形状像一枚胸针，可能是模仿《星际迷航》里的设计，用磁铁吸附在衣服上。它可以执行你通常会用智能手机完成的任务，比如记笔记、搜索网页和拍摄照片。它没有屏幕，而是用绿色激光射在你的手上来显示文字。设备配备了一个摄像头、扬声器和蜂窝网连接。

The novel design of the Ai Pin, which was made by the start-up Humane, generated buzz when it was unveiled late last year. Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, and companies including Microsoft and Salesforce have placed a bold bet — to the tune of $240 million in funding for Humane — that artificially intelligent hardware like the Ai Pin will become the next big thing after the smartphone. (The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft last year for using copyrighted news articles without permission to train chatbots.)
设计新颖的Ai Pin由初创公司Humane制造，在去年年底亮相时引起了热议。OpenAI的首席执行官萨姆·奥尔特曼和微软、Salesforce等公司大胆下注——为Humane提供了2.4亿美元的资金——他们赌的是Ai Pin这样的人工智能硬件将成为继智能手机之后的下一个风口。（《纽约时报》去年起诉了OpenAI和微软，指控它们未经许可使用受版权保护的新闻文章来训练聊天机器人）。

Humane said its goal with the Ai Pin was to offer technology that would help people avoid screens and maintain eye contact.
Humane公司称，设计Ai Pin的目的是提供一种可以帮助人们放下显示屏设备，和他人保持眼神交流的技术。

I liked the chic aesthetic and concept of the pin. It was occasionally helpful, like when it suggested items to pack for my recent trip to Hawaii. But as I wore it for two weeks, it presented glaring flaws. Often, its responses were off-putting, like with the bagel, or wrong, like when it said the square root of 49 was 49. Also, The Times’s photo shoot of the Ai Pin ended prematurely when the device overheated and shut down.
我喜欢这枚胸针别致的美感和概念。偶尔它还能帮上忙，比如它为我最近夏威夷之行推荐了需要带的东西。但佩戴两周后，它就出现了明显的缺陷。很多时候，它的回应令人反感，比如关于贝果的那个；要么根本就是错的，比如它说49的平方根是49。此外，《纽约时报》为Ai Pin拍摄照片时也因设备过热后关机而提前结束。

I wouldn’t pay $700 for this pin — let alone the $24-a-month subscription required to use its data services, including its T-Mobile cellular plan. But consider my curiosity piqued.
我不会为这枚胸针支付700美元，更不会为使用其数据服务（包括T-Mobile手机计划）而支付每月24美元的套餐费用。不过，可以说我的好奇心被勾起来了。

Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, Humane’s husband-and-wife founders, who worked at Apple, said updates issued through its servers would address many of the glitches I had encountered, including heat issues and shoddy math.
伊姆兰·乔德里和贝芬妮·邦乔诺是Humane公司的夫妻合伙创始人，曾在苹果工作。他们说，通过服务器发布的更新将解决我遇到的许多故障，包括发热问题和胡诌的数学计算。

“It’s a journey, and we are just at the start,” Ms. Bongiorno said. “The first version is never the entirety of the vision.”
“这是一段旅程，我们才刚刚开始，”邦乔诺说。“第一个版本绝不是愿景的全部。”

Here’s how my experience wearing the Ai Pin went.
以下是我佩戴Ai Pin的体验过程。

Getting Started
入门指南

Since the Ai Pin lacks a screen, users set up their accounts and other settings on Humane’s website. To unlock the device with a passcode, hold out your hand to project a green laser onto your palm. Pulling your hand outward increases the number while pulling it inward decreases it, and you select each digit by pinching two fingers on the same hand.
由于没有屏幕，Ai Pin的用户要在Humane的网站上创建账号并进行其它的设置。要用密码解锁设备时，你需要伸出手，把一道绿色激光投射在手掌上。手向外摆，数字会增大，向内摆会减小，两指一捻就可以选定一个数字。

The laser can be used to tweak other settings, like connecting to a Wi-Fi network, and it can show a text transcription of the virtual assistant’s answers. Humane said the laser was intended to be used for no longer than nine minutes, but for me, it lasted about three before the Ai Pin complained it was too hot and shut down.
激光还可以用于修改别的设置，比如连接到Wi-Fi网络，还可以用文字形式把虚拟助手的回答显示出来。Humane说激光的使用不能超过九分钟，但我的经历是，用了大概三分钟，Ai Pin就开始抱怨太热，把自己关了。

A Virtual Assistant
虚拟助手

Beyond unlocking the pin with the laser, you’ll control the Ai Pin mostly with finger taps and your voice. The advantage of pinning a virtual assistant to my shirt became clear when I was moving around and thinking about the many things I had to do.
除了用激光解锁，你大多数时候是用手指和语音控制Ai Pin。一旦开始四处走动，思考许许多多需要做的事情，在衬衫上别着个虚拟助手的优势就开始显现出来。

With one finger held down on the Ai Pin, I could summon the assistant and ask it to add tasks to my to-do list. This feature shined when I was packing for my vacation to Hawaii and adding items to my packing list, including T-shirts and swim trunks. When I asked the pin to suggest other items to pack for my trip there, it recommended a hat, sunscreen and other relevant items. Very cool.
只需要把手指按在Ai Pin上就可以召唤助手，要它把事项添加到我的待办列表里。这个功能在我准备去夏威夷度假的行李时大放光彩，我把包括T恤和泳裤在内的所有需要打包的东西逐项添加进去。我问它还有什么需要带的，它推荐了一顶帽子、防晒霜以及其它相关物品。非常酷。

However, the Ai Pin was less helpful in some other situations. When I was in Hawaii last week, I struggled to remember the name of a food truck near my hotel serving loco moco, so I asked the assistant to look it up for me. It said no such food truck could be found, leading me to search on my phone instead.
然而在别的场景下，Ai Pin就没那么有用了。上周在夏威夷的时候，我想不起来酒店附近那个卖洛可摩可饭的路边美食车叫什么，于是要助手帮我寻找。它说没找到任何美食车，要我到手机上找。

A Language Interpreter
翻译员

An important feature on the Ai Pin is the ability to translate a conversation into another language in real time. With one finger held down on the pin, I could set a language to translate to, such as Mandarin. When I held two fingers down on the pin and spoke a phrase in English, the Ai Pin said it in Mandarin, and vice versa.
Ai Pin的一项重要功能是将一场对话实时翻译成另一种语言。用一根手指按在设备上可以设置要翻译成什么语言，比如中文普通话。然后我用两根手指按在设备上，说一句英语，Ai Pin会用普通话说一遍，反过来也一样。

I tested this with several other languages, including Spanish, French and Indonesian. I confirmed that the interpreter was usually correct, though with converting English into Mandarin, it incorrectly translated “good morning” into “da jia hao,” which means “hello, everyone.”
我测试了多种语言，包括西班牙语、法语和印尼语。我可以确认翻译一般来说是准确的，不过在英翻中的时候，它错误地把“good morning”翻成了“大家好”。

Would You Look at That?
帮我看看这个？

Humane is including a feature called Vision on the Ai Pin, which is labeled “beta” to signal that it is unfinished. The device uses its camera and A.I. to analyze your surroundings and give information about what you are looking at. This is what led to my quirky experience with a bagel, which only got weirder when I asked more questions.
Humane在Ai Pin上加入了一个叫Vision的功能，标有“beta”字样，表明这是个尚未完成的功能。设备使用摄像头和AI来分析你周围的事物，提供有关你眼前的东西的信息。这引发了我和一只贝果的离奇故事，随着我提出更多的问题，事情变得愈发诡异。

I asked the pin how to make the bagel more delicious, and it proceeded to explain how to make bagels from scratch. Eventually, I asked the pin to come up with suggestions for sandwiches that could be made with the bagel. It generated a long list of ideas, including chickpea salad sandwiches, sloppy Joes and cucumber sandwiches with green chutney.
我问它怎样能让贝果更好吃，它开始解释如何从零开始制作贝果。最终我问它有什么用贝果做三明治的建议。它给出了一长串的想法，包括鹰嘴豆沙拉三明治、“邋遢乔”和配上青酸辣酱的黄瓜三明治。

On vacation, I visited a botanical garden and asked the pin to identify a flower. “The flower is yellow with red stripes on the inside,” the pin said. This was correct, but it didn’t answer my question.
度假期间，我去了一个植物园，我要它帮我识别一种花。“这是一朵黄花，里面有一些红色条纹，”它说。倒是没错，但没有回答我的问题。

“It’s a Solandra maxima,” my wife said. She had taken a photo of the flower with her phone and uploaded it into a Google Images search. I felt sheepish.
“这是金杯藤，”我妻子说。她用手机拍了张照片上传到谷歌图片搜索。我感觉我很没用。

Humane said it was working constantly to improve the Vision feature.
Humane表示正在不断改进Vision特性。

The Phone Stuff
电话方面

Similar to a smartphone, the Ai Pin has its own phone number and cellular data connection to place phone calls and play music, and its camera can be used to shoot photos and videos.
和智能手机一样，Ai Pin是有自己的电话号码和蜂窝网数据连接的，可以打电话和播放音乐，它的摄像头可以用来拍照片和视频。

Here is where the Ai Pin especially underdelivered. For something designed to make you spend less time on your phone, it isn’t better than a smartphone at any of those tasks. Photos and videos taken with the camera look poorly lit and blurry. To place a phone call, you can ask the assistant to call someone in your address book, but to dial a new number, you dictate the digits. For music, the device currently works only with Tidal, an unpopular music streaming service.
Ai Pin在这方面的表现跟它的承诺相去甚远。这是个意在让你减少手机使用的东西，但在这些功能上却没有比智能手机好多少。摄像头拍摄的照片和视频灰暗模糊。要打电话，你得让助手帮你拨打某个在地址簿里的电话，但是要打新的号码，你就得用语音输入了。音乐方面，目前只能使用Tidal，一种没什么人用的音乐流媒体服务。

Ms. Bongiorno said the Ai Pin let her take more candid photos without a screen getting in the way. But to me, this was a disadvantage. Without a viewfinder, photos looked poorly framed.
邦乔诺说Ai Pin让她可以拍下更真切的照片，不会有一块屏幕在中间挡着。但对我来说。这是个缺陷。没有取景器，照片的构图会很差劲。

Bottom Line
总结

While the Ai Pin was occasionally useful and impressive, it was wrong, unhelpful or inefficient enough times to drive me back to my phone.
尽管偶尔能派上用场，给人留下不错的印象，但更多的时候，Ai Pin会出错、帮不上忙，或者效率低下，以至于我要重新拿起手机。

Gary Marcus, an A.I. entrepreneur, said the mistakes the Ai Pin made, like with the bagel, were the result of so-called hallucinations, the tendency for A.I. to guess and make things up when it can’t find the right answer. That’s a problem that remains unsolved in many A.I. technologies including ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
AI企业家盖里·马库斯说，Ai Pin犯的那些错误，比如贝果那个，是所谓“妄想”的结果，也就是当AI找不到正确答案时常常就会开始瞎猜。许多AI技术至今没能解决这个问题，包括ChatGPT和谷歌的Gemini。

Ms. Bongiorno acknowledged that hallucinations were happening with Gemini, the technology behind the Ai Pin’s Vision feature. She added that the technology would improve rapidly with user feedback and that the company had already finessed the pin’s reaction to bagels.
邦乔诺承认Gemini存在妄想问题，也就是Ai Pin的Vision特性背后的技术。她还说随着用户的反馈，这项技术正得到快速的改善，并且公司已经对设备在贝果的处理上进行了优化。

Mr. Marcus said no company yet had A.I. technology that was sophisticated enough to make a virtual assistant answer questions reliably.
马库斯说还没有哪家公司拥有足够精良的AI技术，让一个虚拟助手可以给出可靠的回答。

“It’s almost like a broken watch being right twice a day,” he said. “It’s right some of the time, but you don’t know which part of the time, and that greatly diminishes its value.”
“这几乎就是破钟一天也能对两次的问题，”他说。“有时候是正确的，但你不知道什么时候，这就极大削弱了它的价值。”

Yet there is a kernel of an idea worth preserving. I liked having an assistant on my shirt when it was actually helpful. I’ll pin my hopes on future iterations of the product — perhaps a cheaper one that lacks a camera and a laser.
不过这其中有一个核心理念是值得保守的。一旦遇到能发挥作用的时候，我很高兴自己的衬衫上别了个助手。我把希望寄托在产品的未来迭代上——也许可以有一个更便宜的版本，没有摄像头和激光。

Brian X. Chen是时报首席消费科技作者。他撰写产品评测以及科技工坊(Tech Fix)——一个关于解决科技相关问题的专栏。在2011年加入《纽约时报》之前，他为《连线》(Wired)杂志做苹果及无线工业报道。欢迎在Twitter上关注他：@bxchen。

翻译：Ziyu Qing、杜然