OpenAI is going to ship 100 million secret AI devices

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive are currently developing a new hardware product that will ship under the ChatGPT creators company, and when it's ready, there will be 100 million units going out to consumers.

4

OpenAI is preparing to broaden its horizons beyond ground-breaking AI-powered software and step into the realm of hardware. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed he is developing this new secret device alongside Ive, which neither Altman nor Ives specified a description for. 

Presumably, it would be a device that enables ChatGPT to be taken on the go by users but somehow provides more value to consumers than the currently available software downloadable on smartphone devices via an app. If it's an AI companion device, possibly wearable, it would likely be running an AI model locally rather than requesting processing power from OpenAI's servers for an answer to a user's question.

4

If popular, the device could alleviate some of the intense pressure on OpenAI servers that are carrying the 800 million weekly active users, which, in turn, would reduce the company's running cost while simultaneously creating an additional revenue stream through hardware sales.

4

The problem with this idea? Convincing people to carry around another device strictly for AI prompts when they already have access to the powerful AI services and traditional search engines within their smartphone. The value proposition of OpenAI's device needs to outweigh the convenience of what a smartphone can do. 

Companies have already attempted this in the past with AI pins; devices users would wear and interact with when wanting an AI-powered response or task completed. However, these didn't really take off at all, and devices such as the Rabbit R1 or the Human AI pin now stand as examples of how difficult it is to convince the everyday person to carry an additional device.