- Altman and Ive say their AI device will be here in less than two years
- It will provide a calmer environment than other current technologies.
- will know everything about you
Can a technology product be like a “cabin by a lake”? OpenAI CEO Sam Altman certainly thinks so. Altman and former Apple design expert Jony Ive shared with Laurene Powell Jobs this week perhaps more than ever about the long-awaited artificial intelligence product coming from their joint venture: IO.
While we still don’t know much about the mysterious AI product, it’s clear that the new device will be different from most consumer electronics available today. Altman commented, during a talk with Ive and Powell Jobs at Emmerson Collective’s Demo Day, that while the iPhone, which I designed, is “the greatest achievement in consumer products,” most devices and applications today seem to fall short of that mark.
They make Altman feel “like I’m walking through Times Square in New York and constantly dealing with all the little indignities along the way, lights flashing in my face, tension here, people bumping into me like the noise is ringing. And it’s kind of unsettling, you know, it’s like shiny things, flashing notifications coming in, like dopamine chasing here and there, and short attention spans.”
By contrast, Altman said the device they’re building is contextually aware enough not to be obtrusive. Instead, you would know when to ask for information and when to present it. “And it has this incredible contextual awareness of your entire life. Then you can go for a vibe that’s not like walking through Times Square and getting bumped into and having all these things competing for your attention. But, like, sitting in the most beautiful cabin by a lake and in the mountains and just enjoying the peace and calm.”
That “vibe” like Altman. described it, it will arrive soon.
Powell Jobs pressed for when we might finally see this mysterious device, asking if it would be in five years.
“Long before that,” Ive began. Powell asked, “Two?” And I continued: “I think even less than that.”
Simple and wearable?
Look
That’s surprising, considering recent reports claiming the couple was having issues with the device.
If there’s anything else we can learn from this chat, it’s that this AI-rich product, which we expected to be packed with the latest GPT models, will know everything about you and is intended to be straightforward, possibly even simple.
I’ve tried to make their intentions clear: “I can’t stand products that are like a dog wagging its tail in your face, or products that are so proud of solving a complicated problem, they want to remind you how hard it was. I love solutions that falter in what they seem almost naive, in their simplicity. And I also love incredibly smart and sophisticated products that you want to touch.”
Or use. Most believe that Altman and Ive are building a portable device that will be about the size of an old iPod shuffle. Surely, as Altman said, to “know everything about yourself” you need the situational awareness that comes from being attached to your clothes or your person and facing the world as you see it.
Alman added that from the beginning of their collaboration, I said that regardless of the end result of the product, “we’re going to make people smile. We’re going to make people feel joy.”
For an AI product, that can be a difficult task. After all, most people approach the arrival of generative AI and chatbots with a mix of happiness and terror. They love the quick, witty answers, summaries, and illustrations they can get from ChatGPT, but they also worry about how the technology could take their jobs or, when it comes to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), take over the world.
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