Latest news with #AIhardware
Bloomberg
28-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Consumer AI Gadgets Will Come With a Whimper, Not a Bang
Where are all the artificial intelligence consumer gadgets? Even a year ago, it seemed tech companies were working to incorporate the technology into every physical device, from coffee makers to vacuums, making 'AI-powered' hardware seem like it would soon be as ubiquitous as 'battery-powered' electronics. Typically, tech conferences offer a glimmer of these futuristic toys. Not all of them end up hitting the market, but it's where we can dream a little about new pocket devices or household robots taking on a greater role in our lives.
Fast Company
23-05-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Sorry, Google and OpenAI: The future of AI hardware remains murky
2026 may still be more than seven months away, but it's already shaping up as the year of consumer AI hardware. Or at least the year of a flurry of high-stakes attempts to put generative AI at the heart of new kinds of devices—several of which were in the news this week. Let's review. On Tuesday, at its I/O developer conference keynote, Google demonstrated smart glasses powered by its Android XR platform and announced that eyewear makers Warby Parker and Gentle Monster would be selling products based on it. The next day, OpenAI unveiled its $6.5 billion acquisition of Jony Ive's startup IO, which will put the Apple design legend at the center of the ChatGPT maker's quest to build devices around its AI. And on Thursday, Bloomberg 's Mark Gurman reported that Apple hopes to release its own Siri-enhanced smart glasses. In theory, all these players may have products on the market by the end of next year. What I didn't get from these developments was any new degree of confidence that anyone has figured out how to produce AI gadgets that vast numbers of real people will find indispensable. When and how that could happen remains murky—in certain respects, more than ever. To be fair, none of this week's news involved products that are ready to be judged in full. Only Google has something ready to demonstrate in public at all: Here's Janko Roettgers's report on his I/O experience with prototype Android XR glasses built by Samsung. That the company has already made a fair amount of progress is only fitting given that Android XR scratches the same itch the company has had since it unveiled its ill-fated Google Glass a dozen years ago. It's just that the available technologies—including Google's Gemini LLM—have come a long, long way. Unlike the weird, downright alien-looking Glass, Google's Android XR prototype resembles a slightly chunky pair of conventional glasses. It uses a conversational voice interface and a transparent mini-display that floats on your view of your surroundings. Google says that shipping products will have 'all-day' battery life, a claim, vague though it is, that Glass could never make. But some of the usage scenarios that the company is showing off, such as real-time translation and mapping directions, are the same ones it once envisioned Glass enabling. The market's rejection of Glass was so resounding that one of the few things people remember about the product is that its fans were seen as creepy, privacy-invading glassholes. Enough has happened since then—including the success of Meta's smart Ray-Bans —that Android XR eyewear surely has a far better shot at acceptance. But as demoed at I/O, the floating screen came off as a roadblock between the user and the real world. Worst case, it might simply be a new, frictionless form of screen addiction that further distracts us from human contact. Meanwhile, the video announcement of OpenAI and IO's merger was as polished as a Jony Ive-designed product—San Francisco has rarely looked so invitingly lustrous—but didn't even try to offer details about their work in progress. Altman and Ive smothered each other in praise and talked about reinventing computing. Absent any specifics, Altman's assessment of one of Ive's prototypes ('The coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen') sounded like runaway enthusiasm at best and Barnumesque puffery at worst. Reporting on an OpenAI staff meeting regarding the news, The Wall Street Journal 's Berber Jin provided some additional tidbits about the OpenAI device. Mostly, they involved what it isn't—such as a phone or glasses. It might not even be a wearable, at least on a full-time basis: According to Jin, the product will be 'able to rest in one's pocket or on one's desk' and complement an iPhone and MacBook Pro without supplanting them. Whatever this thing is, Jin cites Altman predicting that it will sell 100 million units faster than any product before it. In 2007, by contrast, Apple forecast selling a more modest 10 million iPhones in the phone's first full year on the market—a challenging goal at the time, though the company surpassed it. Now, discounting the possibility of something transformative emerging from OpenAI-IO would be foolish. Ive, after all, may have played a leading role in creating more landmark tech products than anyone else alive. Altman runs the company that gave us the most significant one of the past decade. But Ive rhapsodizing over their working relationship in the video isn't any more promising a sign than him rhapsodizing over the $10,000 solid gold Apple Watch was in 2015. And Altman, the biggest investor in Humane's doomed AI Pin, doesn't seem to have learned one of the most obvious lessons of that fiasco: Until you have a product in the market, it's better to tamp down expectations than stoke them. You can't accuse Apple of hyping any smart glasses it might release in 2026. It hasn't publicly acknowledged their existence, and won't until their arrival is much closer. If anything, the company may be hypersensitive to the downsides of premature promotion. Almost a year ago, it began trumpeting a new AI-infused version of Siri—one it clearly didn't have working at the time, and still hasn't released. After that embarrassing mishap, silencing the skeptics will require shipping stuff, not previewing what might be ahead. Even companies that aren't presently trying to earn back their AI cred should take note and avoid repeating Apple's mistake. I do believe AI demands that we rethink how computers work from the ground up. I also hope the smartphone doesn't turn out to be the last must-have device, because if it were, that would be awfully boring. Maybe the best metric of success is hitting Apple's 10-million-units-per-year goal for the original iPhone—which, perhaps coincidentally, is the same one set by EssilorLuxottica, the manufacturer of Meta's smart Ray-Bans. If anything released next year gets there, it might be the landmark AI gizmo we haven't yet seen. And if nothing does, we can safely declare that 2026 wasn't the year of consumer AI hardware after all.
The Verge
22-05-2025
- Business
- The Verge
What in the world are Jony Ive and Sam Altman building?
The last 48 hours have been a wild rollercoaster ride for AI hardware. On Tuesday, Google ended its I/O keynote — a roughly two-hour event with copious references to AI — with its vision for Android XR glasses. That included flashy partnerships with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, as well as the first hands-on opportunity with its prototype glasses for the developers and the majority of tech media alike. On the ground, it was among the buzziest things to come out of Google I/O — a glimpse of what Big Tech thinks is the winning AI hardware formula. A day later, Jony Ive and Sam Altman kicked down the door and told Google, 'Hold my beer.' If you've somehow missed the headlines, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed that the company was buying Ive's AI hardware startup for $6.5 billion. That alone was enough to set the tech media sphere ablaze. After all, Ive is the legendary figure behind the iPhone and Apple Watch's iconic design, revered for his relationship to Steve Jobs. Altman is not only the most recognizable figure in this new AI era, he's also frequently compared to Jobs himself. It's a narrative that writes itself. But for gadget nerds, the real nugget was the tidbit that Altman had seen an actual prototype from Ive. They coyly dropped hints that this mystery gadget would be to AI what the iPhone was to mobile computing. It was, they implied, unlike anything we've ever seen before. That in turn set everyone hunting for clues and leaks about what this device could possibly be. Here's what we know so far. In a leaked call reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Altman told OpenAI staffers it's not a phone, or glasses — the form factor that Meta and Google are betting big on. Altman also indicated that Ive wasn't keen on a device that had to be wearable. It would be part of a 'family of devices,' screenless, and a 'third core' gadget outside of your phone and laptop. It's something that can be stuck into your pocket but also displayed on your desk. Altman has described the prototype as one of the coolest pieces of technology ever, while Ive also threw shade at the Humane AI Pin and the Rabbit R1, the two biggest AI hardware flops of 2024. It's enough to make any gadget nerd scream. Right now, we've entered what I'd call the spaghetti phase of AI hardware. Big Tech and smaller gadget makers alike are throwing anything and everything at the wall to see what sticks. Silicon Valley wants generative AI on your devices. It's just that no one agrees on what's the best approach, or what people would actually pay for and use. You could also view it like the board game Clue, except instead of murder suspects, rooms, and weapons, we're all trying to guess who's going to crack the code in terms of form factor, company, and use cases. Is it Samsung with Project Moohan in your living room as you ask Gemini to take you to Tokyo? Meta with its Ray-Ban glasses on a Thai beach as its Live AI feature translates a drinks menu? Bee or Plaud in a boardroom, diligently summarizing action items from your meeting? Or maybe it's Ive and Altman — with whatever this prototype will do in whatever scenarios we're meant to use it. An educated guess right now would need to include a few key elements, combined with a good-faith reading of what's been leaked. (Of course, acknowledging that Ive in particular is a whiz at cheeky misdirection.) There are a few things AI gadgets have had in common thus far: Cameras Speakers Microphones Batteries Some kind of internet connectivity Portability These are the ingredients needed to enable multimodal AI — as in, a device that can see what you see, access a large language model, be with you wherever you go, interact with you to answer questions, and last long enough to be useful in a variety of scenarios. Given these parameters, it's no surprise that Big Tech has largely landed on wearable gadgets, particularly glasses and pins. The thing most players in this space can't agree on is whether the average person will want a display. So far, Ive and Altman don't seem to think so. Right after the news broke, I suspected this meant some kind of headphone or a mini portable speaker scenario. Then earlier today, notable supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed that the current prototype is 'slightly larger than the AI Pin, with a form factor as compact and elegant as an iPod Shuffle.' A potential use case involves you wearing it around the neck, that there'll be cameras and microphones, and that it will connect with smartphones and computers. That leads me to believe we're talking about something that's a mix between the Plaud NotePin and the AI Pin. Plaud's device can be worn in various ways, including as a necklace, is pill-shaped, and gives off a sleek, compact vibe. Meanwhile, the Humane AI Pin had a camera, speaker, microphone, and the Apple-esque elegance in terms of design. (Even if it violated nearly almost every tenet of good wearable design, got too hot to wear comfortably, and required an expensive LTE subscription.) In some ways, that means we're kind of talking about an always-listening, smart body cam (that could also be a decorative item on your desk). I could be completely off-base. I'm holding space for Ive and Altman to have not only reinvented the wheel, but redefined the next era of mobile computing. And that ambiguity is kind of the point. We don't know — and according to leaks, probably won't until late 2026 or 2027. That's just enough time to dangle a few tantalizing tidbits, drum up curiosity and hype, and crucially, build anticipation that will possibly be sweeter than whatever it is they eventually launch. Strategically, it also lets Ive and Altman throw rivals off their game — make us all question, are smart glasses really the best vehicle for AI?
The Verge
22-05-2025
- Business
- The Verge
Details leak about Jony Ive's new ‘screen-free' OpenAI device
The mysterious device that OpenAI is cooking up with former Apple designer Jony Ive will be pocket-size, contextually aware, screen-free, and isn't eyewear. Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed details about the project in an internal staff call reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, after announcing the $6.5 billion acquisition of Ive's AI hardware startup, io. Altman suggested that the acquisition could increase OpenAI's value by $1 trillion, and envisioned a 'family of devices' being born from the partnership. Information about the first device, which Altman is aiming to release by late 2026, has been kept tightly under wraps since its development was confirmed last year over concerns that competitors will set about trying to copy the product before it's launched to the public. Altman dropped some hints during the call that shape our expectations, however, including that it will be unobtrusive, fully aware of a user's life and surroundings, and will serve as a 'third core device' a person would put on a desk after a MacBook Pro and an iPhone. OpenAI is already predicting that the device will be popular, with Altman saying that it will ship 'faster than any company has ever shipped 100 million of something new before.' The leaked call also gave some insight into what the device likely won't be — Altman said that it isn't a pair of glasses, and that Ive wasn't keen to make something you'd need to wear on the body, having recently slammed the Humane AI Pin. Altman has also denied rumors that OpenAI is developing a phone. The Journal previously reported that Ive and Altman wanted to wean users away from screens, with Ive saying in a recent interview that his next product is driven by owning the 'unintended consequences' associated with the iPhone. Altman told OpenAI employees on the call that they have 'the chance to do the biggest thing we've ever done as a company here.' The Journal reports that Ive referred to the project as 'a new design movement,' and harkened back to his Apple career that saw him work closely with Steve Jobs before his passing in 2011. Now teamed up with Altman, Ive said, 'the way that we clicked, and the way that we've been able to work together, has been profound for me.'
Fast Company
21-05-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
OpenAI acquires Jony Ive's hardware firm, io, to create AI devices
It was perhaps the worst kept secret in Silicon Valley. When he wasn't running his design firm LoveFrom, Jony Ive was building another new company, just around the corner in San Francisco's Jackson Square, called io. Focused on the future of AI hardware—what some have oversimplified as the iPhone of AI—io was rumored to be the physical side of OpenAI's groundbreaking software. Now, the rumors are reality. OpenAI is acquiring io for $6.5 billion. From a news release: The io team, focused on developing products that inspire, empower and enable, will now merge with OpenAI to work more intimately with the research, engineering and product teams in San Francisco. As io merges with OpenAI, Jony and LoveFrom will assume deep design and creative responsibilities across OpenAI and io. LoveFrom will remain independent. It became clear that our ambitions to develop, engineer and manufacture a new family of products demanded an entirely new company. And so, one year ago, Jony founded io with Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey and Tang Tan. Scott Cannon led teams on the Mac and iPad development. Evans Hankey was a senior member of the Apple design team who took over Ive's own role after he left Apple. Tang Tan led design on the iPhone for years. It takes no keen analysis to observe how proven and talented this team is at shipping impactful products. But what are they doing with OpenAI, exactly? The io team, focused on developing products that inspire, empower and enable, will now merge with OpenAI to work more intimately with the research, engineering and product teams in San Francisco. As io merges with OpenAI, Jony and LoveFrom will assume deep design and creative responsibilities across OpenAI and io. In other words, io will be making products, plural, for OpenAI, with an undisclosed timeline for release. What it all adds up to is, perhaps, the greatest called bluff in Silicon Valley history. Ive had already brought much of his design team with him when he founded LoveFrom. And others he brought to io. Now, the most hyped AI company of our age is teaming up with the makers of the most defining consumer hardware of the last century. Whatever they build together will define both of their legacies to come.
