OpenAI is building an AI-powered smart speaker nobody wants. That is, if you believe the Bloomberg report from Mark Gurman and you’ve read his description of said rumored device.
According to the report:
“OpenAI believes the product’s defining feature will be its personality and ability to connect on a humanlike level with users. The speaker incorporates mechanical elements that can move on their own, creating a sense that it is alive and not just an object responding to commands. The machine also will draw on personal information such as emails to better understand its owner.”
The news sources, it appears, come from an insider who decided to spill all the juicy details mere hours after Apple dropped a blockbuster trade-secrets lawsuit on OpenAI’s head. OpenAI claims it’s done nothing of the sort, and recent reports say that Apple’s claim that the AI giant has not even responded to Apple’s earliest concerns was based on it potentially incorrectly identifying the former Apple employees who left to join OpenAI (allegedly with Apple trade secrets in tow).
Apple’s concerns here are twofold: First, these former employees had access to many of Apple’s secretive product development details and may even have asked recruits to share fresh details when they approached them to interview for jobs at OpenAI. The other concern is that Apple is already far behind in the AI race, and if Apple’s plans for Siri, AI, and a potential robotic desktop home assistant were also leaked, it could harm its ability to catch up in multiple market sectors.
This latest news, which may or may not be accurate, should put Apple’s fears to rest.
OpenAI is apparently not building something that could ably compete with any of Apple’s key hardware or future hardware initiatives.
First of all, there’s the smart-speaker-ness of the whole rumored OpenAI concept. There are already too many smart speakers on the market, many of them with their own smart assistants. Amazon, for instance, is smack in the middle of trying to convince millions of customers that not only do they need Echo devices throughout the home, but they need the AI-powered Alexa+ to guide them through their smart home experiences and, to some extent, their lives.
Apple has its own HomePod, Siri-infused speakers, which may get considerably more powerful with the Gemini foundation model-backed version arriving this Fall.
Put another way, smart speakers are a known quantity in the home consumer electronics space, and I think what most tech companies are realizing is that people like and use them, but mostly in limited ways: they want music, occasional answers to simple questions, and voice control of their smart home devices. That’s it.
Why does my speaker think it’s alive?
OpenAI appears to be prepared to offer something different: a personality-filled speaker that can watch you, move to engage, seem alive, and generally make you feel uncomfortable.
Obviously, that would not be the objective, but it could be the result. Who needs a speaker that quietly watches you as you walk from your kitchen to the den, waiting and hoping for you to say, “hey ChatGPT, what’s up with the Strait of Hormuz today?”
In my home, we have a Psync smart security webcam with one oddball feature: it has a motorized body that can turn almost 360 degrees on its base and lift its thin, rectangular face and camera to keep track of people and alert me to intruders. However, most of the time, it’s just watching us move around the house, and I can tell you that my family hates it. Sometimes I come home and find its face forced down so it can’t pop up and track anything.
Now, imagine a larger and far smarter OpenAI AI smart speaker in your home, watching, waiting, chiming in when you don’t want it to, and generally making people feel uncomfortable.
This will not be the breakout hardware hit OpenAI is hoping for.
Look, I was under the impression that OpenAI (really Jony Ive and Sam Altman) were working on an AI wearable. I didn’t love that idea either, but it was a lot less creepy than this.
So, Apple, chill out. OpenAI’s plans are no threat to you, even if they do allegedly have a bunch of insidery Apple information.
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lance.ulanoff@futurenet.com (Lance Ulanoff)
