Their first mover advantage is gone, they are unable to innovate on their core product and everything that is said or done is hyped to the extreme.
And now trying to move into adjacent categories where there is no clear problem to be solved and is putting them up against the biggest players in the industry.
Smartphones/PCs/wearables, browsers, social media, & IDEs are absolutely important to any company wanting to sell increasingly more capable models that understand our world better with each passing year (provided the scale hypothesis keeps up): For the control over both the hardware and the OS, and for the amount of data that can be fed back to the training set.
Google (and to varying extents Microsoft & Meta) can leverage their existing products or distribution advantages. Given the how frosty both their Microsoft & Apple partnership now appears, it seems natural that OpenAI are tempted to pursue consumer devices, browsers (Operator is a start), IDEs (cf Windsurf).
> We have more than five minutes left. Spoiler alert: That’s the only detail about the device that’s in the entire video. —KT
There's a lot of hype building going on for very little detail. Similar feeling to the Humane teaser videos from a year or two before they launched.
I have been naming my iPhones since 5 or 6 soap because they are like holding a wet bar of soap. I’m not expecting earth shattering product.
I think Ives real talent is in materials and fabrication.
Huh. Do you have a reference for this? If this is in a book or something I'm interested to read more about this backstory.
But also, you don't go to all the effort of preparing glasses that are 10 years ahead of the industry and wearing them in a video... only to not have a big reveal. There has to be a pay off to the marketing, and saying "one more thing, we were wearing these last year" in their product announcement doesn't get them anything.
And I appreciate that I am as easy to sell to if the thing I find trusting is being used. It just blows my mind that this is what seems to work the best.
I remember the Segway hype. A lot of it was intriguing because they had comments from heavyweights who in theory know how to assess a major product. But, yes, we know how that played out.
For most people, that’s enough to inspire… something.
Notice that Trump often says nonsense, or says things everyone knows he can't be trusted about. But he demonstrates his power to control the social norms through his initiative, the emotional power of his rhetoric, his power overall. People perceive that the herd will follow him and go that way. Perception becomes reality.
With Altman and Ive, here are two powerful people demonstrating the same thing, to a different audience in a way appropriate to that audience. It doesn't matter what they say. The fact that it's obvious nonsense makes it more powerful - it shows they are so powerful that they can brazenly BS and still execute. Your comment shows that you believe the herd will follow them. Your perception becomes reality.
The only useful information is that they decided to make this video.
The piece mostly engages in frivolous crit of unimportant execution details of the content-free video.
Why fill the streets with extras?
I think the details revealed in the article demonstrates lack of focus and misguided priorities. There was no need for the video.
> 39. Any exploration program which "just happens" to include a new launch vehicle is, de facto, a launch vehicle program.
Having a Jony Ive project on the side isn't going to do squat for OpenAI—if they're going to go into consumer hardware that's going to need to be an all-consuming strategic pivot, which their other moves suggest they're not doing. They're currently in spaghetti at the wall mode with Jony Ive as just one bet among many, which is a very bad way to approach a new piece of consumer hardware that's meant to compete with Apple.
You have to build a phone.
There is no other way to get the data you need to make XR glasses, AI pebble, Rabbit etc work the way people expect without it. Because Apple and Google are well within the rights to deny the siphoning of your private data to a company like OpenAI who only exists because of large scale trademark abuse.
I believe the preferred terminology is "drone collar"
The reality is that we likely don't need any new devices as much as people want to keep saying that. If you have airpods and a phone you could talk to chatgpt and say "show me how to fix my kid's bike with a simple video on my phone" -- it buzzes your phone and boom the video is there. Sure it is missing the ability to take a picture of the world / video -- so in that case, a pair of the meta rayban glasses would do that -- again just use your phone / cloud, it all works. Or skip the special glasses and hold your phone up to the thing you want to take a picture of. No need for magical new devices.
Having a camera staring at me while I talk to somebody -- yea I'm gonna pass on that.
My fear is this is a choice you or I can't make; it's up to the whims of others who may choose to use these products.
Time has shown again and again that average people don't exactly value their autonomy or privacy when technology's involved, I have no doubt it'd be the same way with literal live-streaming cameras attached to people's faces.
> Kamen showed it to Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos and John Doerr. Bezos reportedly made his "loud, honking laugh" of appreciation. Jobs said it would cause people to re-architect cities and compared its importance to the PC. Doerr likened IT in magnitude to the Internet and then invested in it.
But there were zero public details about what "IT" was. (IT was the Segway.)
https://www.forbes.com/2001/01/18/0118malone.html
Speaking of Steve Jobs, I think the reason the "sam and jony" page looks like a wedding announcement crossed with an Apple advertising -- down to the url https://openai.com/sam-and-jony (which you should visit if the only thing youve seen is the 'how we met' video TFA is breaking down) -- is because it's trying to frame Sam as Jony's new Steve Jobs.
In segways case, not only was it a little underwhelming compared to the buzz, GW Bush flipped headfirst over it during a demo drive. I imagine that had some moderating impact on launch.
Since he left Apple, he’s been designing for Ferrari, King Charles, $2500 jackets, etc.
It feels quite at odds with Jobs’ original visions of products that were beautifully designed, but still remained generally affordable for students, teachers, small business owners, and Mr/Mrs Everybody in general.
Of all his tendencies that Jobs supposedly kept in check, I think that’s the most underdiscussed one. I guess the writing was on the wall with the $10k gold Apple Watch.
It's a weird comingling of the field trying to pretend it's more important and cool than it is + rampant imposter syndrome in its superstars.
Ergo, they must pretend they're doing Very Important Work and are The Best in the World.
... meanwhile, it's fucking curves on corners. Throw a dart and pick one.
The real work is being done by unfamous, tirelessly toiling rank and file in both industries, quietly making the world a better place, bit by bit.
I think it's fair to say that most companies building products priced for Mr/Mrs Everybody don't spend a dime on design where there is already a market leader to copy inspiration, or outright steal from (see almost every phone made since 2007).
The Gold Watch was probably an opportunity to work on an interesting project with a new material.
It gives them the dopamine rush and adulation of the audience.
OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive
rl3•5h ago
Reminds me of this:
https://x.com/sama/status/1791183356274921568
Funny his shoes in the Jony Ive video share a similar aesthetic to the very Google stage he was calling out. It gets better when you consider Google's only recently begun starting to kick OpenAI's ass, and all without fake-ass coffee shop extras.
The lengths people go to try to appear "real" never ceases to amuse. Surely there's a formal term for this? Perhaps the Zuckerberg effect.
geeunits•5h ago
Frost1x•4h ago
inopinatus•4h ago
"Disappointed it doesn’t simulate the experience of stepping on a lego brick by accident"
detourdog•3h ago
prawn•2h ago
LambdaComplex•2h ago
detourdog•2h ago
I'm so far out of touch I have never heard of the Lego Adidas shoe partnership.
inopinatus•2h ago
detourdog•2h ago
ms.inopinatus sure has some kink.