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Ex-Apple design star Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have been discussing the design of an unspecified new AI machine, reports The Info, citing two individuals acquainted with the talks. It is unclear what precisely the machine could also be, however the report has many individuals on social media and the press guessing a couple of re-imagining of a smartphone that depends closely on generative AI. Others suppose the machine could also be one thing else solely.
The information, initially damaged by The Info and later coated by The Verge and Reuters, is admittedly skinny on particulars. As The Verge factors out, it is unclear if the proposed machine can be an OpenAI product, a tool produced by a distinct firm, and even whether or not the machine will truly occur in any respect. (OpenAI didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.) However the lack of specifics and the fervor of hype over AI within the tech business have already created a vacuum that individuals are filling with speculative concepts.
“Given Ive’s involvement, it’s almost certainly to be some kind of shopper machine, like a reimagined telephone,” write Jessica Lessin and Stephanie Palazzolo for The Info. “One chance is OpenAI is constructing its personal working system… Think about an AI-native working system that might generate apps in real-time primarily based on what it believes its consumer wants, or one which listens to close by conversations and robotically pulls up related data for its consumer.”
Nevertheless, some are skeptical that the machine can be a smartphone. Responding on social media platform X to speculation a couple of Google Glass-type of machine, former Microsoft Home windows Division President Steven Sinofsky said, “No concept, however for certain a telephone, particularly an Android spinoff, makes zero sense.” In one other publish, he wrote, “Anybody can construct a telephone. Watching Google and Microsoft needs to be good proof that few can distribute one.”
Presently, OpenAI is finest generally known as the creator of the AI assistant ChatGPT. Ive, famend for main industrial design on Apple’s most iconic merchandise (together with the iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch), left Apple in 2019 and started his personal design consulting agency referred to as LoveFrom.
Ive and Altman are reportedly mates, and this hypothetical AI machine would not be Altman’s first collaboration with Apple’s design alumni. Thomas Meyerhoffer, who was Ive’s first rent at Apple, designed the retina-scanning Orb for Altman’s cryptocurrency undertaking, Worldcoin. That machine was developed by Instruments for Humanity, an organization co-founded by Altman. However notably, the shortage of particulars on the potential machine has created a vacuum that individuals are filling with speculative concepts.
Including a twist to the saga is the involvement of Masayoshi Son, the CEO of Japanese multinational funding firm SoftBank. Son, who has invested more than $140 billion into AI-related startups, has additionally reportedly been in talks with Ive and Altman in regards to the concept. His future position within the undertaking stays unsure.
Whether or not this machine ever sees the sunshine of day or merely stays an attention-grabbing “what if,” individuals are clearly intrigued. And perhaps it is simply an AI information middle product with a elaborate entrance panel. But when an (unconfirmed and purely hypothetical) “OpenAI telephone” did come to move, social media reveals that it already has one assured buyer.
“IMO, if OpenAI have been to launch a telephone with ChatGPT at its core, I’d most likely instantly swap,” wrote Medium’s employees iOS engineer, Thomas Ricouard, on X. “The long run is just not with our present gen assistant. These are past ineffective.“
