A new report from The Information details OpenAI’s hardware ambitions, and reveals that the first Jony Ive-designed device expected to launch is a smart speaker. Here are the details.
Smart speaker will be first OpenAI product to launch, per report
OpenAI is working with Jony Ive to product its first line of hardware products, with a launch expected early next year.
Per a new report, it sounds like the first Ive-OpenAI collaboration to launch could be a smart speaker—HomePod 2.0 for Ive, you could say.
Stephanie Palazzolo and Qianer Liu write at The Information:
The smart speaker—the first device OpenAI will release—is likely to be priced between $200 and $300, according to two people with knowledge of it. The speaker will have a camera, enabling it to take in information about its users and their surroundings, such as items on a nearby table or conversations people are having in the vicinity, according to one of the people. It will also allow people to buy things by identifying them with a facial recognition feature similar to Apple’s Face ID, the people said.
The report mentions two other products both in active development: smart glasses and a smart lamp.
Beyond the trio of devices, Palazzolo and Liu also offer some fresh insights into the collaboration between Ive, LoveFrom, and OpenAI.
Ive’s involvement with OpenAI is complicated. He still runs his design firm, LoveFrom, as an entity independent of OpenAI, even though it is LoveFrom that is in charge of coming up with potential OpenAI device designs. Meanwhile, OpenAI’s internal devices team is in charge of making the hardware and the software powering it, as well as understanding how consumers will use the device.
That division of responsibilities has sparked tensions. Some OpenAI staffers have complained that LoveFrom has been slow to revise its designs and shares little about its process of coming up with new ones, even with others working on devices within OpenAI
Additionally, it sounds like there have been complications integrating Io members with OpenAI’s existing hardware team following the Io acquisition.
With Apple developing a trio of AI wearables plus new HomePod-related products, it will be interesting to see how the competition between the two companies pans out.
Are you interested in getting an OpenAI smart speaker with a camera? Let us know in the comments.
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