Jony Ive and Sam Altman yesterday released a strong candidate for most frustrating video of the year: promising a completely new concept in AI hardware, but giving very little clue as to what it might be.I transcribed the video to see whether I could spot any clues, in conjunction with other things the two have said.I think we can draw some pretty safe conclusions about what it’s – and there are one or two clues about what it … I argued a year ago that the AI hardware we’ve seen to date is like people trying to invent the iPod after the iPhone.
Once we knew that Ive and Altman were working on something, however, I had to temper my skepticism, noting that it would be a brave person who bets against the pair.The only form factor that has made any sense to me is smart glasses, but Altman has specifically said that io is not a pair of glasses, while both have also made it clear that it’s not a phone.The pair strongly imply it’s a form factor we haven’t yet seen, which would seem to rule out a badge, a smartwatch, a smart ring, or in-ear headphones.
I mean, this is a marketing video, so we can’t be certain that they’re not fudging things a little, but to create this much fanfare before releasing a new take on something that already exists would be kind of a dumb move – and these are not dumb guys! Here are a bunch of direct quotes from the video that really do make the claim that they are creating something(s) genuinely new.The also has some quotes from a presentation Altman gave to OpenAI staff.Honestly, if you say all that and then launch a watch or a pendant, the internet is going to come down on you so hard … But there are a few more specific clues.
First, they’ve said that they want to get people away from screens, which strongly implies that it either doesn’t have one, or that the screen is not the primary UI.Altman also said something which sounded somewhat weird.He said that, currently, if we were sitting in a bar and wanted to ask AI something, then: I mean, I’m 100% a Mac-first guy – give me a choice between doing a random task on my iPhone or my MacBook and I’m typically going to use the latter – but not even am going to pull out my Mac rather than my iPhone for most AI queries in bars.
Perhaps that’s just tech bros in San Francisco, where pulling out a laptop in a bar would be entirely unremarkable, but there was also that opening line: While an iPhone, Apple Watch, HomePod, and Vision Pro are all technically computers, the word does tend to suggest something.The also says he got a bit more specific with staff: If we take it out and put it somewhere, that very strongly suggests it’s not a wearable, and that it would most directly substitute for AI tasks we might currently carry out on a laptop.So to me all this is saying: It is a genuinely new form-factor, not a re-imagining of a current device It either doesn’t have a screen, or the screen is not the main way we interact with it It’s not a wearable It’s intended to be more powerful than a phone, more in line with laptop capabilities When I asked ChatGPT to speculate, the above image is what it came up with.
When I asked it to try again, and come up with a different form factor, it showed me the same thing from a different angle.I think OpenAI is messing with us! Do you have your own theories about what it might be? Please share your thoughts in the comments.Highlighted accessories Anker 511 Nano Pro ultra-compact iPhone charger Spigen MagFit case for iPhone 16e – adds MagSafe support Apple MagSafe Charger with 25w power for iPhone 16 models Apple 30W charger for above Anker 240W braided USB-C to USB-C cable C0LDPLAY4LIFE: You found the secret code for our Grid Frame giveaway! You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day.
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