OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is on a quest to build an AI-first device that he says will be as revolutionary as the iPhone but will bring users peace and calm instead of more stress. He even got Jony Ive, the designer of the original iPhone, to help build it.<\/p>\n
In an onstage interview with Ive at Emerson Collective\u2019s Demo Day<\/a> this week, Altman confirmed the AI device, which was first teased in May after OpenAI acquired<\/a> Ive\u2019s startup, io, will be released in less than two years. Yet the first prototypes are ready, he added, and they may look nothing like what we\u2019re used to.<\/p>\n The yet-unnamed device will be a sort of anti-iPhone. It\u2019s unclear what the design of this device will actually entail\u2014if it will have a screen like a smartphone, or go the route of the always-listening AI Friend necklace<\/a>, although Altman said the people who have seen it were surprised by its simplicity.<\/p>\n One thing\u2019s for sure: The new device is meant to get away from the mind-numbing distractions we associate with modern technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I use current devices or most applications, I feel like I am walking through Times Square in New York and constantly just dealing with all the little indignities along the way, flashing lights in my face\u2026it\u2019s an unsettling thing,\u201d Altman told Emerson Collective founder and Steve Jobs\u2019 widow Laurene Powell Jobs.<\/p>\n This hectic experience, which Altman says is what has gone wrong with technology, stands in contrast to how the new OpenAI device will feel like. Instead of adding stress, the 40-year-old CEO said, using the device feels like \u201csitting in the most beautiful cabin by a lake and in the mountains and sort of just enjoying the peace and calm.\u201d<\/p>\n Much like the Friend necklace, the new OpenAI device and others to come after, which Altman teased, will capture context from your life and help it know when it should filter things out, and when to ask for your input.<\/p>\n \u201cYou trust it over time, and it does have just this incredible contextual awareness of your whole life,\u201d Altman said.<\/p>\n