Openi and Jony Ive on which device they work? « They will not be glasses, it will be produced in 100 million pieces »

The announcement of the alliance between Jony ive, Designer of the great hits Appleand Openi sparked a hunt for rumors: what are IVo and Sam Altman work on, who in the creative couple takes the place that for years was from Steve Jobs? The idea of ​​the two is give life to a new physical device that can become central in people’s lives. The announcement comes after Openai, the company led by Sam Altman, He acquired « I », the startup founded by Ive, for the figure of 6.5 billion dollars.

During a meeting with employees, reported by the Wall Street JournalSam Altman has defined this new collaboration as « The opportunity to do the biggest thing we have ever done as a company». The ambitions are enormous: Openai aims to distribute Over 100 million of these new « companions ai » (Ai Companionfor now there is no better name). A huge figure that would be reached, according to Altman, « faster than any other company has never sent 100 million of a new product ».

What do you know so far of this mysterious object? It won’t be a smartphone, nor a pair of Smart glasses Like those just shown by Google. It will probably not be a Wearable Classic (headphones, watches). Ive would have expressed skepticism towards wearable objects on the body, as always reported by the Wall Street Journal. It is therefore thought that the mysterious product could be Something small, to keep in your pocket or to hang around the neck like a pendant or still to be placed on the desknext to laptops and smartphones. In fact, the ambition would not be that – difficult in fact – to replace the mobile phone, but rather to create a third category of « indispensable » product that goes to support the smartphone and computer.

Not produced in China

The well-known Ming-Chi Kuo analyst, In one of his posts on Xhe specified – by resorting to his contacts in the Tech industry – the alleged technical and design characteristics of the prototype: «The mass production will begin in 2027, probably outside China, perhaps in Vietnam. The current prototype is slightly larger thanHumane at the pinwith a compact and elegant design similar to that of an iPod Shuffle ». According to Kuo, this device will be equipped with cameras and microphones to detect the surrounding environment, but will not have any type of display and will be connected to smartphones and computers to exploit their processing and visualization skills.

Humane at the pin is the device that, together with Another gadget called Rabbit R1represented the very first wave of the Ai Companion. Both were flops. Jony Ive, speaking with Bloomberg, commented on these attempts to create new hardware based on the AI: «They were very poor products. There has been a lack of new innovative ideas that were reflected in the devices « .

What is this device for

The key concept behind these objects – and therefore probably also behind the future Gadget of Openai – is to free users on addiction to the screens, moving the interaction towards a more natural and immediate communication, based on voice and visual perception. Altman, speaking to his employees, has clearly said that the current paradigm – that of using computers and smartphones to access artificial intelligence – is overcome and is insufficient compared to the potential of technologies such as chatgpt. « We have a kind of magical intelligence in the cloud, yet if I wanted to ask for something chatgpt now, I should pull out my laptop, open a browser and type, » explained Altman. « This is the maximum limit of what a current laptop can do, but I think technology deserves something much better. »

Mg sieglerwell -known analyst and investor in the technological field, underlines that true innovation will be precisely in the method of interaction with the device: « The key point seems to be the vocal input, not necessarily a wearable device », Siegler wrote on spyglass. According to Siegler, despite Iive and Altman are avoiding explicitly talking about Wearable, the device It could be something similar to an advanced voice recorderwith a possible integration of cameras to allow the AI ​​to « see » and describe what surrounds us.

The challenge to Google, Apple’s difficulties

The decision to focus on a screen without screen represents A precise challenge to the current domain of Apple and Googlewhich base a large part of their strategy on the screens and on touch interfaces. But Google impressed the public and professionals with The burst of ads related to AI during the Google I/O event (According to Ming-Chi Kuo, one of the main reasons why Openai has announced precisely now the collaboration with Ive is to shift attention from Google’s announcements, which have shown a strong integration between their ecosystem and artificial intelligence, a challenge to which Openii still cannot fully respond).
Apple, on the other hand, seems more in difficulty. Is late in the development of artificial intelligence And a device other than smartphones would put the revenues derived from the iPhone at risk, which remains central in the accounts of the company led by Tim Cook and which is threatened moreover from the new Trump duties. The apple response could arrive shortly, at the WWDC 2025 event scheduled starting next June 9th.

« Ai integrated in real physical applications is clearly the next critical trend, » says Kuo. And the agreement between Ive and Openai follows exactly this direction, as the great computer and winner of the Turing Prize, Alan Kay said: « People seriously intent on doing software should build their hardware ».