OpenAI’s Sam Altman & Jony Ive Want To Create A Screenless AI Phone

Summary: OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Apple’s former design chief Jony Ive are teaming up to develop a screenless, AI-powered phone that could redefine the smartphone experience or even replace it altogether. While the project is still in its early stages, their goal is to create a more proactive, voice-enabled assistant that goes beyond what’s available today.

We call them smartphones, but how smart are they really? Most tasks still need manual input, even when calling up AI assistants. What happened to the future those movies promised, where we’d have devices that were smart and proactive? Turns out that the future isn’t so far behind, thanks to OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman and Apple’s former design chief, Jony Ive, both of whom are working together to create a screenless AI phone.

That being said, not everyone thinks it should be called a phone. According to The Information, it cites people close to the project who insist that “it’s not a phone.” However, it might function like one.

According to the report, Ive and Altman launched a venture called ‘io Products,’ which OpenAI is reportedly looking to acquire for a cool $500 million. They established the venture over a year ago. The goal was to create voice-enabled AI assistants for household products.

Basically, it sounds like the company wants to make smart home devices, but powered by AI. There are smart home devices like Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Nest Hub that have voice assistants baked into them. However, these devices aren’t particularly proactive and they’re not quite as “smart” compared to AI.

Competing in the smartphone space

One of the benefits of using AI is that it can understand natural language. This means that talking to it feels more conversational and natural, instead of using specific commands to trigger current digital assistants.

That being said, you shouldn’t hold your breath if you’re hoping to see this product launch anytime soon. The report claims that it’s still in the early stages of development. No concepts are currently available, and the release of a physical product will take time.

If and when it does release, it could turn the smartphone market on its head. Companies like Apple and Samsung are dominating the smartphone space right now, but with AI becoming increasingly popular and borderline necessary, perhaps a screenless AI phone will be necessary to turn the tables.