OpenAI announced two weeks ago that it was acquiring legendary UK tech product designer Jony Ive’s AI hardware start-up, io. The designer of several iconic iPhone models and other Apple products, including Macs and iPods, sold io to the ChatGPT maker for a cool $5bn for the 77% it didn’t already own.
But what exactly is OpenAI CEO Sam Altman — who starred alongside Ive in a stylish promotional video about the deal — hoping to achieve by splashing so much money on the London-born Ive, who now calls San Francisco home?
The answer is clear: he’s there to dream up and build the first mass-market products of the post-smartphone era, devices infused with AI that promise to transform the way we live, work and play.
Ive doesn’t have anything tangible to show the world just yet, and so Altman is taking a gamble that Ive’s keen eye for iconic product design will lead to the development of a radical new device that could be to the AI era what the iPhone was to smartphones.
The idea is that in future we’ll all carry some sort of device — perhaps an earpiece, smart glasses or even a clip we attach to our clothing — that interacts with and learns from us and the world around us.
Altman is clearly hoping that whatever Ive comes up with will be the defining gadget of this new era of AI-infused consumer electronics. But that’s not guaranteed: several start-ups are already actively chasing this dream.
Early AI gadgets, such as the Rabbit r1, have had poor reviews and buyers of these kinds of devices have been disappointed with the quality. But they’re the early adopters. The market is awaiting a breakthrough device, such as the original iPhone, or the iPod before it, and it’s not yet clear who’s going to build it. Perhaps Apple will succeed, but it has fallen behind rivals such as Google in building AI tools — indeed, it’s now seen as a laggard in AI.
One early promising device is from US start-up Limitless, which has built a gadget it calls Pendant that you clip on to your shirt or jacket. It has built-in microphones that can record everything it hears while you’re wearing it — yes, the privacy implications are huge and future products like it will be able to “see”, too, thanks to built-in cameras.
What will the etiquette be of using these always-on AI gadgets around others, in work and social settings?
Backed by Altman and Andreessen Horowitz, Limitless says it creates tools that augment human intelligence with AI that help to “overcome the brain’s limitations”. It describes its mission as “helping humans go beyond our biological limitations”.
In effect, it acts as a memory aid. At the end of a workday, for example, you could ask Pendant to give you a recap of the day’s meetings and the follow-up actions that might be required. Or you could ask it: “Remind me … When I was at the doctor last month, what did he suggest I do about my high cholesterol?”
Now imagine a device with built-in cameras. You walk up to someone you haven’t seen in a while, but you’ve forgotten their name — a social faux pas to be sure. An ear-mounted AI gadget could whisper to you: “That’s Joanna. She’s married to Andries, and they have a toddler, Jake. You last saw Joanna and Andries at their home in Plettenberg Bay last year.”
The privacy implications here are stark. But how many of us will be able to resist having a second “brain”, always with us and helping us remember things, taking notes during meetings, suggesting follow-ups, reminding us proactively to do things we might have forgotten about, and recalling the detail of conversations from months or even years ago?
Will companies allow these gadgets into their buildings, or will they be seen as a security risk? What will the etiquette be of using these always-on AI gadgets around others, in work and social settings? Is the era of privacy ending? Will we entrust our most private and intimate conversations to big technology companies?
No-one really knows the answers to these questions yet, but we’re going to have to figure them out in the second half of this decade. It’s a brave new world we’re headed into — and hopefully not the one Aldous Huxley imagined in his famous dystopian novel.
McLeod is editor of TechCentral
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