A supremely self-congratulatory video launched suspiciously close to Google’s I/O developer conference announced to the world that OpenAI was acquiring “io”, a company co-founded by Jony Ive, the legendary designer behind the iPhone.
Back in the early days of KNOWRON, I remember a really rough Photoshop we did of a service technician using a BlueTooth headset to communicate with the system to ask questions and document his work. We actually shot a video with the concept on a workshop at TUM that had some leftover pump equipment; the filename for it was knowron_ironman.mp4. As with many things, we found that our imagination outpaced the current technology: it is 2025 and dealing with Siri is still a pain.
OpenAI may not have the best reputation, nor the best image generation (Google is finally having its viral moment with Veo3), hell it might even regret saying out loud that they had principles in the first place. I find myself coming back to ChatGPT because they are hands down better than anybody at one thing: form factor. I love their app, on my computer and my phone. Ive, more than anybody, is keenly aware of this edge. Sure, Blackberries had mp3 players AND access to the internet. But they weren’t an iPhone.
2024 was a big year in terms of AI wearables, with both the Rabbit R1 and the Humane AI Pin entering (and exiting!) the market. Despite flopping, I believe that AI devices are actually a good idea with some pretty rough execution. Interacting with humans and the world around them without a touch screen to act as an intermediary is a hard problem to solve. And Sam’s right, all LLMs are still only accessible behind devices that are, at this point, decades old.
A big issue these devices had was that it was tied to your phone, it was essentially an app with corresponding hardware (and a monthly subscription). With smaller LLMs becoming more powerful, this barrier might be broken soon. The “brain” might actually fit in your pocket instead of living in a data center thousands of kilometers away.
So what are they building again?
Back to Jony, Sam and a website that looks like a wedding announcement, they didn’t actually say much more than the fact that they are working together, to the tune of $6.5 billion, in an all-equity deal. (What is it that happens to non-profit governance when your buddies hold that much stock? Eh I’ll ask ChatGPT later…) But we don’t much know anything about what exactly they will build. My guess? Well, Jony has the answer right on his face the whole time.
Yes, my money is on what Zuckerberg has been harping on about for a while with his Meta Rayban devices. I’ve always found Google Glass to have been a fascinating little device, particularly after working for a while in Mixed Reality. Google is making similar moves: buried within their I/O, they introduce Android XR (a sort of operating system for such devices) being powered by Gemini.
I’ll be looking forward to more accessible AI and bringing it to frontline workers across the world with KNOWRON. Most of the work that keeps the world running happens without a computer screen in between and with some sort of tool in your hands. AI and technology need to catch up to frontline workers, not the other way around. I also dearly wish to see our Ironman dreams come to fruition at some point this decade.
As for who will come out on top in Silicon Valley, my money is still on Meta. After all, I’m a sucker for a pair of Ray Bans. Can we get ClubMasters next, please?
