- Altman and Ive say their AI gadget will be here in less than two years
- This will provide a calmer atmosphere than other current technologies
- He will know everything about you
Can a technological product be like a “lakeside cabin”? Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, certainly thinks so. Altman and former Apple design expert Jony Ive shared this week with Laurene Powell Jobs perhaps more than ever about the highly anticipated AI product coming from their joint company: IO.
While we still don’t know much about this mysterious AI product, it’s clear that the new gadget will be different from most consumer electronics available today. Altman commented, in conversation with Ive and Powell Jobs at Emmerson’s collective demo day, that although the iPhone, which I designed, is “the crowning glory of consumer products,” most devices and applications today seem to fall short of that mark.
They make Altman “feel like walking through Times Square in New York and constantly dealing with all the little indignities along the way, lights flashing in my face, tension building here, people bumping into me like noise is being heard.”
In contrast, Altman said the device they were building had enough contextual awareness that it wouldn’t bother you. Instead, he would know when to ask for information, when to present information. “And there’s just this incredible contextual awareness of your whole life. So you can go for a vibe that’s not like walking through Times Square and getting passed and seeing all this stuff competing for your attention. But, like, sitting in the most beautiful cabin by a lake and in the mountains and kind of just enjoying the peace and quiet.”
This “vibe” like Altman. I described it, arriving soon.
Powell Jobs pressed on how soon we might finally see this mysterious device, asking if it could be in five years.
“Much earlier than that,” Ive began. Powell asked: “Two? and I followed: “I think even less than that.”
Simple and portable?
Look on it
This is surprising, considering recent reports that both men were having difficulty with the device.
If there’s anything else to take from this discussion, it’s that this AI-rich product, which we’ve been waiting to be filled with the latest GPT models, will know everything about you, and it’s meant to be simple, maybe even simple.
I tried to clarify his intentions: “I can’t stand products that look like a dog wagging its tail in your face, or products that take so much pride in solving a complicated problem, they want to remind you how hard it was. I like solutions that seem almost naive, in their simplicity. And I also like products that are incredibly smart and sophisticated that you want to touch.”
Or wear. Most think Altman and Ive are building a portable device that will be about the size of an old iPod shuffle. Surely, as Altman says, to “know everything about you” requires 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 early on in their collaboration, Ive said that whatever the final product did, “We’re going to make people smile. We’re going to make people feel joy.”
For an AI product, this can be a big challenge. After all, most people approach the advent of generative AI and chatbots with a mixture of happiness and dread. They love the quick, witty answers, summaries, and illustrations they can get from ChatGPT, but also worry about how the technology might take their jobs or, when it reaches artificial general intelligence (AGI), take over the world.
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