Jony Ive and Sam Altman yesterday released a strong candidate for most frustrating video of the year: promising a completely new concept in AI hardware, but giving very little clue as to what it might be. I transcribed the video to see whether I could spot any clues, in conjunction with other things the two have said. I think we can draw some pretty safe conclusions about what it’s not – and there are one or two clues about what it is … I argued a year ago that the AI hardware we’ve seen to date is like people trying to invent the iPod after the iPhone. Once we knew that Ive and Altman were working on something, however, I had to temper my skepticism, noting that it would be a brave person who bets against the pair. The only form factor that has so far made any sense to me is smart glasses, but Altman has specifically said that io is not a pair of glasses, while both have also made it clear that it’s not a phone. The pair strongly imply it’s a form factor we haven’t yet seen, which would seem to rule out a badge, a smartwatch, a smart ring, or in-ear headphones. I mean, this is a marketing video, so we can’t be 100% certain that they’re not fudging things a little, but to create this much fanfare before releasing a new take on something that already exists would be kind of a dumb move – and these are not dumb guys! Here are a bunch of direct quotes from the video that really do make the claim that they are creating somethinggenuinely new. “io is merging with OpenAI—formed with the mission of figuring out how to create a family of devices that would let people use AI to create all sorts of wonderful things.” “Jony recently gave me one of the prototypes of the device for the first time to take home, and I’ve been able to live with it—and I think it is the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen.” “And so it’s just common sense to at least think, surely there’s something beyond these legacy products.” “I am absolutely certain that we are literally on the brink of a new generation of technology that can make us our better selves.” The WSJ also has some quotes from a presentation Altman gave to OpenAI staff. Employees have “the chance to do the biggest thing we’ve ever done as a company here,” Altman said after announcing OpenAI’s plans to purchase Ive’s startup, named io, and give him an expansive creative and design role. Altman suggested the billion acquisition has the potential to add trillion in value to OpenAI, according to a recording reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Honestly, if you say all that and then launch a watch or a pendant, the internet is going to come down on you so hard … But there are a few more specific clues. First, they’ve said that they want to get people away from screens, which strongly implies that it either doesn’t have one, or that the screen is not the primary UI. Altman also said something which sounded somewhat weird. He said that, currently, if we were sitting in a bar and wanted to ask AI something, then: “I would reach down. I would get on my laptop, I’d open it up, I’d launch a web browser, I’d start typing, and I’d have to explain that thing. Then I’d hit enter, and I’d wait, and I’d get a response. And that is at the limit of what the current tool of a laptop can do. But I think this technology deserves something much better.” I mean, I’m 100% a Mac-first guy – give me a choice between doing a random task on my iPhone or my MacBook and I’m typically going to use the latter – but not even I am going to pull out my Mac rather than my iPhone for most AI queries in bars. Perhaps that’s just tech bros in San Francisco, where pulling out a laptop in a bar would be entirely unremarkable, but there was also that opening line: “I think we have the opportunity here to kind of completely reimagine what it means to use a computer.” While an iPhone, Apple Watch, HomePod, and Vision Pro are all technically computers, the word does tend to suggest something. The WSJ also says he got a bit more specific with staff: The product will be capable of being fully aware of a user’s surroundings and life, will be unobtrusive, able to rest in one’s pocket or on one’s desk, and will be a third core device a person would put on a desk after a MacBook Pro and an iPhone. If we take it out and put it somewhere, that very strongly suggests it’s not a wearable, and that it would most directly substitute for AI tasks we might currently carry out on a laptop. So to me all this is saying: It is a genuinely new form-factor, not a re-imagining of a current device It either doesn’t have a screen, or the screen is not the main way we interact with it It’s not a wearable It’s intended to be more powerful than a phone, more in line with laptop capabilities When I asked ChatGPT to speculate, the above image is what it came up with. When I asked it to try again, and come up with a different form factor, it showed me the same thing from a different angle. I think OpenAI is messing with us! Do you have your own theories about what it might be? Please share your thoughts in the comments. Highlighted accessories Image: ChatGPT’s imaginings. C0LDPLAY4LIFE: You found the secret code for our Grid Frame giveaway! Add 9to5Mac to your Google News feed.  FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel #device #mysterious #important #what #could