OpenAI’s first hardware gadget reportedly a mobile smart speaker
From left: Jony Ive and Sam Altman. Image: OpenAI
Apple sued OpenAI last week over alleged hardware trade secrets theft
OpenAI is pitting its AI capabilities against the likes of Amazon and Google with its very first consumer gadget, a “mobile, screen-free smart speaker”, according to a Bloomberg report
The publication’shatGPT-powered home computer, and meant to be a physical embodiment of the AI chatbot
a “human-like AI companion” that stays at home and controls smart-home appliances, responds to queries and plays media – tapping into OpenAI’s chart-leading ChatGPT models for these capabilities
Similar devices, such as Amazon Alexa, Apple Home and Google Home, are already widely available on the market, but OpenAI is seemingly attempting to make upgrades to existing model standards. According to Bloomberg’s report, OpenAI is hinging on its ability to connect with users on a “human-like level”
The new smart speaker is expected to become “increasingly personalised” over time as it continues to gather data on its users, including
“The speaker incorporates mechanical elements that can move on their own, creating a sense that it is alive and not just an object responding to commands,” read the report
Though described as a speaker, the device, which is still under development, will include a camera along with other sensors to help it better understand context
The speaker will communicatelier this month. According to the AI giant, the model is capable of speaking with a cadence similar to humans, and can listen and speak at the same time
GPT-Live “make[s] talking with AI feel much more like having a real conversation”, OpenAI said at the time of its launch
Unlike its biggest direct competitor, Anthropic, which has a narrowed focus on the enterprise AI market, OpenAI is expanding its scope into the heavily populated consumer gadgets market
The tech giant, which has shaky plans to go public this year, has shut down less profitable ventures such as the Sora video generation model and its standalone AI browser Atlas
The company spent $6.5bn last summer to acquire Io, a hardware start-up co-founded by Apple design veteran Jony Ive and OpenAI’s current chief hardware officer Tang Yew Tan. And by November, it had finished developing its first device prototypes
Its hardware division is currently developing five different products, but hopes to one day create a mobile AI device capable of replacing the smartphone
The news comes as Apple, in a fresh lawsuit last week, accused OpenAI and its hardware division of stealing trade secrets
The iPhone maker named Tan, its former VP of product design for iPhone and Apple Watches, in the suit, and accused OpenAI of taking part in a “coordinated pattern of misconduct” to gain access to confidential information about its unreleased products
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Related:
AI, gadgets, Apple, Sam Altman, electronics, OpenAI
Suhasini Srinivasaragavan is a sci-tech reporter for Silicon Republic
editorial@siliconrepublic.com
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