The alliance between Sam Altman executive director of OpenAIy Jony Ive, the most influential industrial designer in modern technology, continues to silently advance. And although the device they are developing is still has no official name or imageboth gave signs that their creation aims to redefine the way we interact with everyday technology.
Altman and Ive, responsible for milestones such as ChatGPT iPhone and the iPod recently shared some details during a talk with Laurene Powell Jobs widow of Steve Jobs.
Without revealing too much, they made it clear that they are facing a new type of hardware different from any known category and designed to occupy a central role in people’s digital lives. According to Altman, The current prototype is “simple and beautiful”the result of multiple discarded attempts along the way.
The duo claims to have achieved a balance between design and functionality that feels natural from the first contact, in a business adventure that promises to inaugurate the era post-cell phones.
Ive, famous for his minimalist philosophy maintained that he is attracted to “incredibly intelligent and sophisticated products that you want to touch without feeling intimidated, and that you can use almost without thinking.” According to him, this new team meets that ideal: an advanced, but accessible and transparent object for the user.
The most striking feature is perhaps the one that completely distances it from current devices: it will not have a screen. Instead of burdening the user with notifications, applications and permanent stimuli, it is designed to operate in the backgroundinterpret the context through sensors and appear only when really necessary.
As its creators say, the idea is reduce the feeling of technological stress generated by smartphones and their interfaces.
Both Ive and Altman agree that this is a breaking point in the bond between humans and machines. ChatGPT creator suggested launch could surprise ahead of schedule.
Although everything still happens under strict confidentiality, the project is already considered one of the most relevant movements in the next generation of smart devices. If they deliver what they promise, Altman and Ive could be on the verge of their next big revolution.
Despite the enthusiasm, not everything is certain. When asked by Powell Jobs about its launch, Altman predicted that “the extraordinary thing will be ready in much less than five years, I think in less than two years”.
Likewise, Ive hinted that the new device could be made of ceramicssince he assured that it is a material that he greatly appreciates and does not rule out recovering it.
On the other hand, specialized media warn that development faces serious challenges. Among the problems mentioned are the need to balance processing power with energy consumptionguarantee the user’s privacy (the device would always be “alive”, listening or analyzing the environment) and define an AI interface that is useful without becoming invasive.
In a recent post, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo indicates that the device could be larger than Humane’s AI pin, but with a “form factor as compact and sleek as an iPod Shuffle”.
Kuo adds that “one of the intended use cases” is to carry the device around the neck. It also may not come with a screen, Kuo says, with only built-in cameras and microphones for “environmental sensing.”
The miniature could also connect to smartphones and PCs to use its computing and display capabilities.