Marques Brownlee addresses Humane AI Pin review backlash as MoistCr1tikal & PhillyD come to his defense

Marques Brownlee has hit back following the controversy ignited by his Humane AI Pin review, and now many big internet celebs are coming to his defense.

American YouTuber Marques Brownlee found himself in hot water after posting his review of the Humane AI Pin, calling the device the “worst product” he had ever reviewed.

While the product received many bad reviews and Brownlee was certainly not alone in his opinion, his video sparked a firestorm of backlash that quickly went viral.

Most notably, internet personality Daniel Vassallo blasted Brownlee on X (formerly Twitter), writing, “I find it distasteful, almost unethical, to say this when you have 18 million subscribers. Hard to explain why, but with great reach comes great responsibility.”

“Potentially killing someone else’s nascent project reeks of carelessness. First, do no harm,” he continued. However, Brownlee has since hit back and now many big-name creators are coming to his defense.

“We disagree on what my job is,” Brownlee responded. Many fans of the YouTuber evidently shared the same sentiment, pointing out that an “honest and unbiased review” would not always please everyone.

MoistCr1TiKaL took to the social media platform, calling Vassallo’s response “dogsh**” and claiming Brownlee’s review helped prevent potential buyers from wasting their money on a “turbo ass” product; “Imagine a world where all reviewers have to give squeaky clean reviews to everything.”

Philip DeFranco also defended Brownlee in a YouTube video, stating Vassallo’s tweet was “one of the dumbest, braindead takes” he had ever seen.

DeFranco went on to point out that Brownlee was not a reviewer who loved to “sh** on products,” and that his negative reviews ‘stood out’ as a consequence of this.

“It is not his job to run interference or PR for a company that publicly released a product at $700 with a monthly fee because version one of their product is lackluster,” DeFranco said.

“I understand why some people may be sensitive to criticisms because a lot of those end up getting bulked in with the people [where] it’s just pure hate. But those things are not one and the same.”

On April 16, YouTubers Colin & Samir published an interview with Brownlee that they had recorded prior to the release of his viral Humane AI pin review. During their conversation, Brownlee said that it feels like a “PSA” to publish negative reviews of tech as opposed to positive ones, but ultimately found that he doesn’t feel a massive sense of responsibility when warning the public about a faulty product.

“I wouldn’t say it’s any more or less stressful or weighty to do that, because it’s very unlikely that I’m the only one saying negative things about whatever product I’m making a video about,” he admitted.

“I feel like when a YouTube video of mine goes up on a product, there are very frequently hundreds going up on the same product around the same time,” he continued. “…I actually think it may be less likely that my individual opinion carries as much weight to the stock price, specifically, because there are lots of people piling on to the same product at the same time.”

“There’s a lot of people who pay attention to what I’m talking about and might not like it because of what I’ve said, but that’s just how I feel. There are so many more voices now.”