Jony Ive-designed OpenAI device aims to be always present, always sensing and listening to your life

Jony Ive
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and former Apple design icon Jony Ive are collaborating on one of the most eagerly awaited AI innovations: a ChatGPT-powered consumer hardware device that’s always present, always sensing and listening to your life.
Reuters:
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The core vision is simple but radical: AI needs full context. Unlike our phones — which are either on or off, in a pocket or on a table — this device would understand the world continuously, like a truly proactive assistant. OpenAI’s device aims to be always present, always sensing, but with explicit, visible signals that show when it’s paying attention.
To power these devices, OpenAI’s eventual vision isn’t just giant cloud-based AI systems, but small models that can run meaningful AI locally. While OpenAI built its reputation on massive, compute-hungry models, the rapid progress of its compact “Mini” models has reshaped its roadmap.
Insiders say these local models will be critical for a device that is listening and watching, and help address privacy concerns: most people won’t want their entire life streamed to the cloud.
To make that possible, OpenAI will need a new kind of chip… a custom chip optimized for on-device inference.
This family of devices will roll out in phases. The lighter, task-specific and cloud-based devices will come sooner. The more privacy-sensitive, always-on devices will arrive later, as insiders caution the powerful on-device computer might take a few years to mature.

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MacDailyNews Take: As we asked back in early October, “The question is how does a ‘pocket-sized AI device’ differ from the already pocket-sized iPhone and its Android knockoffs. The iPhone already has everything needed – microphones, cameras, fast processors, display, speakers, connectivity, etc. Why carry a “pocket-sized AI device” when you already carry a smartphone that could, via settings, be set up to match whatever the “pocket-sized AI device” offers (always listening, etc.) and exceed it (on-device LLMs, etc.)?”
The iPhone can already do everything OpenAI is looking to do with its device – better, faster, and with no need to buy, subscribe to, or carry an extra device. Just toggle literally one “Super Siri” setting on your iPhone.

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[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
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