The race is on to create an AI-era iPhone

• Tech companies are attempting to capitalize on the AI ​​hype by creating AI-centric devices.
• Some tech leaders see the gadgets as the iPhone of the AI ​​age, a way of owning the hardware used to interact with AI.
• A true iPhone successor could be the technology’s “golden goose,” but previous attempts have failed.

Get ready for a new wave of AI-powered tech hardware.

These cutting-edge gadgets won’t look like the thin glass rectangles we’ve become accustomed to during the smartphone era — they’ll take bold new shapes as tech companies experiment with new ways to interact with AI.

The race is on as generative AI tools like ChatGPT, OpenAI’s conversational AI chatbot, are taking the world by storm. Tech companies are trying to capitalize on the hype through new devices that include AI features — a phenomenon tech leaders are calling the “iPhone moment.”

The main question facing them all is: Could personal AI gadgets eventually become the next big thing, replicating the iPhone’s tectonic shift in the tech industry?

Some big names seem to be betting on it.

Just last week, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the latest generation of Meta’s Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, in which wearers can talk to the glasses through Meta AI, Meta’s conversational assistant, getting information in real time , and can use it to livestream footage. Facebook and Instagram.

“It would be pretty wild, with meta AI you could talk to your glasses all day long,” Zuckerberg told The Verge.

The AI-glasses are a step toward Meta’s ultimate goal: a world full of holograms you can talk to, Zuckerberg said.

“You’re going to be interacting with people as holograms, as AI holograms, all of these things,” Zuckerberg said, referring to Meta’s smart glasses vision.

Three days later, during a Paris Fashion Week runway show, a prototype AI pin device from startup Humane was seen on some models on the runway — a badge-like, wearable device that includes a camera and speaker but no screen.

Humane’s co-founder, former Apple designer Imran Chaudhry, demonstrated several of the gadget’s sci-fi-like features on stage during a TED talk in May, such as Pin’s ability to project the details of a call onto his hand, from English. To translate into French. An AI-generated version of his voice, and a summary of missed messages and calendar invitations using the “Catch Me Up” command.

The promise of the AI ​​Pin, Chaudhary said, is to create an invisible tool that will reimagine human-technology interactions so that humans can “get back to what really matters” — “a new ability to be present.”

“Why fiddle with your phone when you can hold an object and ask questions about it?” Chaudhary said in his TedX talk. “The result almost feels as if the entire world has become your operating system.”

It has also been reported that former Apple design chief Jony Ive, who led the design of the iPhone, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are reportedly working on a dedicated AI hardware device with “a new form factor unrestricted by rectangular screens”. are building.

Top-tier names also attract top-tier funding. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son is reportedly considering injecting $1 billion into the venture.

The mysterious device has not yet been officially announced, but Altman told Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff that soon “it will be unthinkable not to integrate intelligence into every product and service.”

A ‘Game of Thrones’ battles for AI dominance

Given the capabilities of AI, some tech experts believe that AI-powered personal devices could be the technology that succeeds the iPhone in becoming the new computing device in our daily lives.

As Jeff Bezos and Brad Stone, author of two books on Amazon, recently said: “More than 15 years after the introduction of the iPhone, ChatGPT and other generic AI services will soon be the foundation of a new type of hardware device and a “Could create a completely different kind of interaction between humans and computers.”

Dan Ives, technology analyst at Wedbush Securities, said tech leaders may bet big on AI hardware in part because hardware can play a “major role” in AI development.

“Altman, Nadella, Zuckerberg, Cook and Jassy all know that hardware AI will be the gateway to consumer technology,” Ives told Insider. “Software is the heart and lungs of AI while hardware represents the hands and feet.”

In fact, Ives believes it’s “now or never” for Big Tech to capitalize on the AI ​​arms race because “the ‘Game of Thrones’ battle for AI dominance” is already leading to “major investment , catalyzing partnerships and product launches.”

He predicts that 2024 will be a “launching pad” year for AI.

It’ll be harder to hide people from their iPhone

But others are a little more skeptical about whether AI devices could one day be as popular and revolutionary as the iPhone.

“Personally, I find it unlikely that a separate category of ‘AI devices’ will stick around for long,” said co-author Thomas High, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who researches the history of the technology. 2021 book titled “A New History of Modern Computing.”

High argues that AI is more of “a brand than anything else” — a marketing strategy, he told Insider, that companies have historically used to raise money and promote research — and iPhone users may continue to stick to pre-established gadgets as Apple develops new versions of the iPhone with AI features.

“Siri has long been a core capability of the iPhone, and local processing of speech and other AI-branded activity has the kind of apps that justify the need for annual upgrades to smartphone hardware,” High said. “So in the short term, the AI ​​trend seems more likely to consolidate smartphone dominance.”

Even though the “smaller, lighter and more energy-efficient technologies” underlying smartphones have “opened up other product opportunities” such as smart watches with fitness tracking capabilities, he believes personal AI devices “will ultimately succeed.” “Given the failures of some wearable devices like Google Glass.

Ives, the technology analyst, would agree with High’s sentiment. Even though he said AI hardware innovations represent “the golden goose for software as well as tech players in the next decade”, he doesn’t think all of them will be successful.

Still, despite AI’s impressive capabilities, High said smartphones may still be easier to use for the average consumer than AI devices, meaning it may take some time for AI personal devices to gain public interest. Could.

Finally, there is a ChatGPT app available for iPhones and Android.

“To be honest, the phone isn’t that much of a burden to carry around and there are still a lot of things that are easier to do with it than glasses, a watch or earphones – no matter how much AI fairy dust you sprinkle on them. ,” Haigh said.

“I want to see smartphones dominate the mainstream for at least a decade.”