OpenAI's phone
In the several text messages submitted by Tang Tan and others to the U.S. District Court, their tone was no different from that of Shenzhen entrepreneurs that "Intelligent Things" has met in the past few years. They believe that AI is truly bringing an excellent innovation opportunity to hardware. However, they are not willing to say that they are creating an iPhone killer.
After all, these individuals once witnessed and were truly involved in the initial R & D of the iPod and iPhone, as well as the subsequent glorious process. In the past two years, they left Apple one after another and joined Jony Ive's startup, IO Product. Soon, OpenAI acquired this team of about 50 people at a valuation of nearly $7 billion.
Previously, another hardware team approached OpenAI for financing, and OpenAI introduced them to IO. The two sides exchanged some information via email. In the emails to the founder of this company, these former iPhone gurus fully expressed their excitement about the huge potential of AI hardware.
As Steve Jobs mentioned, the iPhone is just a beautiful box for iOS. Now, ChatGPT needs a dedicated box of its own to constrain, standardize, and guide the development path of LLM technology.
Currently, there doesn't seem to be a real difference among several large models, and there is no threshold or platform like Google Search and Windows. Can a dedicated hardware solve the problem?
The OpenAI Phone is an ecological reshaping, not just a mobile phone
The teams of Jony Ive and IO have completed this task several times in history. Now, they can use Jobs' approach to help Sam Altman and OpenAI once again, dressing ChatGPT up. All those who truly care about their software will eventually create their own hardware.
According to the public information of OpenAI and IO, they will release their first hardware product in the next few months. It is a device that can be hung on the chest, allowing users to see the surrounding environment. It can interact with users through voice without clicking the screen.
Information from reliable sources indicates that the appearance of OpenAI's first smart hardware is definitely not like the pictures on the Internet. The size doesn't match, and it's obviously out of proportion when hung on the chest, even for tall and big Americans. As "Intelligent Things" initially discussed, this product might be more suitable to be placed on the table.
According to the description of people familiar with the matter, this product is very similar to a kind of breakfast food that people in California really like. Jony Ive was first inspired by the sunflowers at Steve Jobs' home when designing the popular iMac at that time. Maybe Jony Ive saw something on the dining table.
The shape is completely typical of the Apple and Jobs era. This is an awkward moment for Apple.
Some of their former Apple colleagues privately said that this team will also release two other products. One is similar to Meta's AI glasses, mainly integrating ChatGPT's voice interaction, rather than being like Apple Vision Pro. There will also be a smartwatch, which will definitely integrate ChatGPT's interaction capabilities. However, no one can clearly explain the difference between this device and the Apple Watch.
During the process of Jony Ive's final supervision of Apple Vision Pro, there were obviously inconsistent views with Apple's release team, which was impossible in the Jobs era. Now, he can fully display his talents.
Sam Altman wants to find a better hardware carrier for ChatGPT, a dedicated wrapper for ChatGPT, rather than turning it into an app and huddling on iPhones and Android phones. A few days ago, Richard Ho, a hardware director at OpenAI, described this awkward situation. As the system of the new hardware, ChatGPT needs users' trust, full data permissions, and to be the core to command other apps and applications.
However, before Kuo Ming - chi's revelation, no one mentioned that they would make a mobile phone. The strange thing about Mr. Kuo is that he only discloses the parties involved in the stock - related matters and doesn't mention the most core participants. This was also the case in the disclosure process of the foldable iPhone more than once. He must be in the know.
Tang Tan and two others were once directly responsible for the engineering design of the iPhone and were among the most core designers of the iPhone in the Jobs era. Apple's designers are not just responsible for drawing pictures and outlining lines. They also need to be directly responsible for engineering design and even the manufacturing process.
Will Apple allow Jony Ive and these dozens of people to challenge it?
From another perspective, the Doubao phone that caused a huge sensation a few months ago and the so - called AI phones before that all have a big question. They are following the old path with new products and can't get rid of the old business model. They have to cooperate with killer apps like Meituan, Ctrip, Baidu, and Toutiao and accept the advertising profits from these companies.
The result of this model is that it has a strong flavor of pay - per - click ranking and not enough AI flavor, so it can't be regarded as an AI phone.
The advantage of OpenAI is that they are truly rewriting the entire Internet ecosystem. They have their own AI browser, advertising system, and e - commerce system. Jony Ive should rearrange the relationships between these services to make them more AI - oriented.
From this perspective, in fact, Google has more advantages than OpenAI. With the Pixel phone, e - commerce, advertising, and the new Gemini, it's easier to create a chemical reaction. Google will soon show their progress. Unfortunately, there is only one Jony Ive.
This article is from the WeChat official account “Intelligent Things Technology Review” (ID: IntellegentThings). Author: Written by "Intelligent Things". Republished by 36Kr with authorization.