OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and io Products creator Jony Ive forged a friendship that led to OpenAI's acquisition of io, and subsequently, an AI-based hardware product that both Altman and Ive believe is a reimagination of what it means to use a computer.
The duo recently did an interview with Emerson Collective founder Laurene Powell Jobs, providing insight into what they're working on. There's now an established hardware prototype, and while Altman and Ive didn't explain what it is in plain language, the interview has hints of its design and functionality.
Here are several ways that Altman and Ive described their AI hardware device:
- It breaks the constraints of the "same kind of computer that we've been using for a long time."
- Research started with a question about what it means that the device "is going to be able to know everything you've ever thought about, read, said?"
- It will be a "sort of active participant" that's proactive in "a not annoying way."
- Current devices and apps are like "walking through Times Square in New York" with flashing lights, crowds of people, noises, etc. It "doesn't make our lives peaceful and calm" or let us "focus on other stuff," which is what Ive and Altman wanted to address.
- If you have an AI that you trust to do things for you and filter things out with "incredible contextual awareness of your whole life," then you can go for a vibe that's not walking through Times Square.
- Ive and Altman's device aims to bring some of the spirit of "sitting in the most beautiful cabin by a lake and in the mountains and just sort of enjoying the peace and calm."
- Ive said he prefers solutions that "teeter on appearing almost naive in their simplicity and their feel."
- He also likes "incredibly intelligent, sophisticated products that you want to touch" and use "almost carelessly."
- Ive told Altman that the design is right when you "want to lick it or take a bite out of it," and with the current prototype, Altman got that feeling.
- "The degree to which Jony chipped away at every little thing that this doesn't need to do or that doesn't need to be there is remarkable."
- "There's something about when a design gets like so simple and beautiful. And playful, for lack of a better word." There aren't a lot of products with "humor" in "this area" and there is a desire "not to take ourselves quite so seriously even though these are serious times."
- Altman said that early on, Jony said "we are going to make people smile. We're going to make people feel joy. Whatever the product does, it has to do that." Altman said it's "lovely" to "have some whimsy back."
- The prototypes are "jaw-droppingly good" and "exciting."
Rumors have described the device that io is working on as an AI phone without a screen, a "third core device" after a MacBook and an iPhone that's unobtrusive and able to sit in a pocket or on a desk, an iPod Shuffle-sized device that's neck worn, and a pocket-sized gadget that's screen-free but contextually aware of your life with microphones and cameras. It is not any kind of wearable like glasses, a watch, or earbuds.
Ive and Altman expect to have a device ready to hit the market in less than two years from now. The full interview with Altman and Ive is worth watching to see the commentary in context.
