5/22/2025 at 2:03:37 PM
by MrJagil
5/22/2025 at 2:03:37 PM
https://archive.md/LRoARby MrJagil
5/22/2025 at 4:37:28 PM
Being a designer myself, but in the interest of public good, I will share my design here and urge anyone else to copy it. The ideal form factor for this device is a cowboy hat. Here's why1. Such a device will require significant local compute, generating a lot of heat. It cannot be too close to the body, and require efficient cooling. In the cowboy hat, the processing can be placed above the head in the bucket of the hat, and the cooling dispersed in a large surface area around the brim
2. Such a device requires 360 degree camera vision, thus cannot be a backpack or vest type design (which also bring heat too close to the body). It also must be close to eye level (cannot be shoes).
3. Has to be able to be worn in any environment, with any style. A cowboy hat is great for sun protection, and in the rain.
by beau_g
5/22/2025 at 4:50:37 PM
4. Allows for future product tiering, e.g., a sombrero-style "plus" modelby alexose
5/22/2025 at 5:01:01 PM
The "Urban Sombrero" if you will.---
"It combines the spirit of old Mexico with a little big city panache." - Elaine Benes
by moltude
5/23/2025 at 9:09:24 AM
It could also incorporate solar cells on the upside.by tim333
5/23/2025 at 9:13:07 AM
I myself feel a robotic talking donkey like the one in Shrek would be the ideal form factor.by tim333
5/22/2025 at 5:06:05 PM
The Simpsons already had this idea.by julg
5/22/2025 at 5:50:34 PM
Do you mean the Nacho hat?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOsWfzzvlkU
Or was that an episode that I missed in the last ... 15 years... Oh man...
by Balgair
5/22/2025 at 6:03:04 PM
This one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_MPJuqnze8 It’s also a surveillance device…by julg
5/23/2025 at 1:05:53 PM
The bit about the neck pain. Man, reminds me of the issues VR headset users complain about.Simpsons really did do it first
by Balgair
5/22/2025 at 4:56:34 PM
I've been wanting an AI drone companion for decades. Forget having to wear any tech. But I'll be building my own. And I'll just wear a regular cowboy hat when it's hot and sunny.by hnuser123456
5/22/2025 at 4:56:01 PM
"These violent delights have violent ends."by lif
5/22/2025 at 2:07:53 PM
>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 would be a third core device a person would put on their desk after a MacBook Pro and an iPhone.We're all comfortable with phones with all sorts of sensors, but most of those are on or off in a way we understand.
I'm not a fan of the idea that someone else around me brings a device that is perpetually "fully aware of a user’s surroundings and life" around me and then now my privacy is gone ...
by duxup
5/22/2025 at 2:15:12 PM
you know the story of callerID from the 1990s? The whole idea that it was a person's right to see WHO was calling them was deemed crazy. Before this it was consider your right to call people anonymously. Now when we see "Unknown Caller" no one answers. In 2030 this little orb will be so standard if someone wants their privacy back it will be seen the same way. They are the ones wanting to call someone anonymously.by andrewfromx
5/22/2025 at 4:32:46 PM
I don't think this applies here. That's "other people's privacy" not "your own privacy".Not that I think you're wrong, people put alexa in their houses, buy samsung smart tvs, etc.
by rendaw
5/22/2025 at 2:41:08 PM
While I don't like this future, I'm afraid that you're correct in your prediction.This is actually the sentiment I had about Google Glass - people (and tech) were not ready then, but I think that slowly the world is moving towards the acceptance that everything is being recorded and analyzed, by default. I just hope that we'll still be able to have some private spheres where there is no recording, but am concerned that this would have to be enforced by just not having any electronics there at all.
by falcor84
5/22/2025 at 2:58:46 PM
The idea of Google glass in the bathroom still creeps me out.>just not having any electronics there at all
A few decades ago the company I worked for sent people out to a government contractor's site and the rule was ZERO electronics. Outside you and your clothing nothing that went in came out. Your car and keys were kept at the gate securely. You were blindfolded and lead to the location to do your work.
Blindfolds aside, I think that's the future.
by duxup
5/22/2025 at 4:06:47 PM
Google glass in the bathroom - like a locker room at a gym? Yeah, but then again any picture taken of someone fully clothed AI can just remove the clothing. There was this new "Take it down Act" law just passed. But with AI it's almost moot? Any picture can now be just altered to be explicit.by andrewfromx
5/22/2025 at 4:34:54 PM
No, it can replace the clothes with a naked body that is statistically representative of the naked bodies found in American porn.No matter how many times I try, it never renders my third nipple correctly.
by flir
5/22/2025 at 9:10:39 PM
I actually checked on civitai now and was flabbergasted that no one apparently posted a third nipple LoRA. There is a third breast LoRA [0], but I couldn't find a basic third nipple.[0] https://civitai.com/models/15074 (obviously NSFW)
by falcor84
5/22/2025 at 4:26:33 PM
Yea they don't do blindfolds these days. They tend to just have projects in their own independent rooms. No electronics are still a rule. You leave your phone with security at the front desk if you need it more accessible than the parking lot.by delfinom
5/22/2025 at 7:00:57 PM
In this case the location was in the American southwest and the "front desk" was a gate.by duxup
5/22/2025 at 4:32:16 PM
Privacy (or maybe, more precisely, anonymity) was a temporary side-effect of the industrial revolution and the move to cities. We didn't have it in villages, and we won't have it in the global village.(Not an original idea, but I can't remember who I stole it from. Maybe it was David Brin).
by flir
5/22/2025 at 4:30:09 PM
[dead]by dkkergoog
5/22/2025 at 2:11:46 PM
> I'm not a fan of the idea that someone else around me brings a device that is perpetually "fully aware of a user’s surroundings and life" around me and then now my privacy is goneThis is my primary concern about these things. I'd be very likely to avoid being around people that I know are using something like this to the greatest degree I can.
by JohnFen
5/22/2025 at 4:40:10 PM
I'm not a fan either, but I think it's inevitable that everything we do, at least in any not 100% private space, will be recorded in the not distant future.Because recording will be so very cheap and useful.
As an example, my car has at least 5 cameras that are constantly on. This is - or will be soon - true for all cars. So anytime you can see a car, you're being recorded.
by BurningFrog
5/22/2025 at 5:04:32 PM
More likely we're just in a liminal phase. There are basically no meaningful privacy protections to speak of basically anywhere in the world. And the same was once true of drug laws, gambling laws, weapons laws, advertising laws (as in you could sell a bag of chalk and claim it was whatever you wanted at one time), and so on endlessly.The odds of there being no privacy laws perpetually into the future are probably 0. So we're just in a period that'll probably be thought of, in terms of privacy, of how we might think of the 'wild west' in terms of guns/violence. And I think the change will probably come fairly soon, especially if this idea isn't as DOA as wearable AR stuff was.
by somenameforme
5/22/2025 at 4:35:32 PM
Most people will give privacy away for convenience or because they want the thing buys them status. The few holdouts will be pressured into get the new thing because they risk being left behind or not be in the loop. If done right, this will go exactly like smartphones did.by darth_avocado
5/22/2025 at 4:43:12 PM
> Most people will give privacy away for convenience or because they want the thing buys them status.Which is totally fine.
What is not totally fine is people giving my privacy away for their convenience and/or status.
by JohnFen
5/22/2025 at 7:01:53 PM
I fear the lines are blurred. Someone gives access to say their texts, that's some of yours too, and so on.by duxup
5/22/2025 at 7:02:25 PM
I fear that's true, people just don't care.by duxup
5/22/2025 at 4:35:21 PM
What is this thing for?That is going to be a hard no in so many contexts. Hospitals, gyms, many work environments, my house, the list is going to be long. We know the companies can’t keep their government from forcing access at some point or another. We also know at some point a zero day exploit will allow pin point targeting of who you want to spy on. We see this already on mobile phones.
Edit: When I read the archive link above I can’t actually see the quote referenced.
by bjelkeman-again
5/22/2025 at 4:41:36 PM
so, basically: Total Information Awareness* (pitched as personal 'ultimate' convenience gadget, of course)(Anyone hear read _We_?)
by lif
5/23/2025 at 12:35:11 AM
Cue enhanced 2 party recording laws.by ethbr1
5/22/2025 at 4:32:16 PM
I would bet it will be called "The Dramamaker"> 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,
Sounds an awful lot like the phone. But it s not a phone. But people forget that a tool with the form factor of a phone has been man's best friend for millenia: it was a knife, a purse, a notebook, and now a phone. They are not going to beat that , is my bet. If it can be integrated in a phone, it's a phone
> a third core device a person would put on their desk after a MacBook Pro and an iPhone.
That's my car keys. now i will have to charge them too?
by seydor
5/22/2025 at 4:46:59 PM
Tech elite continue to be completely out of touch about what people actually want.by paxys
5/22/2025 at 5:03:32 PM
They know people don't want it, they just hope to be able to convince them otherwise because right now OpenAI is a feature, and not a product. The real money is in owning a product platform and so executives are forced to pitch some product idea to continue working there.by jeremyjh
5/22/2025 at 4:58:48 PM
It is kind of interesting to note that the 1 thing tech was able to successfully get us to add to things we carry with us was the phone.And that had prior signals that we would accept that: basically every household in the US had a phone. Cordless phones gained popularity. Beepers were a thing. We knew people wanted phones with them, we just couldn't do it yet.
The odds of creating a brand new device that no one has ever heard of that people will carry everywhere with them is basically zero.
by bcrosby95
5/22/2025 at 6:19:05 PM
> The odds of creating a brand new device that no one has ever heard of that people will carry everywhere with them is basically zero.If there is enough utility in the device, and the form factor is well done, I think the odds are much higher than zero.
by duderific
5/22/2025 at 9:51:56 PM
People already have a phone, and aren't going to carry around two tech gadgets. So either this thing does everying a phone can, in which case it's a phone (but it sounds like it doesn't have a screen, so it isn't), or it doesn't, in which case it fails.by HarHarVeryFunny
5/23/2025 at 2:57:13 AM
I believe it was Kurzweil who had the quip that only novel utility differences drive rapid mass adoption.The reason mobile devices scaled so rapidly is that calling a specific person (wherever they are) is so much more useful than calling a physical location.
If OpenAI wants to create a successful device, it needs to have that utility delta over an existing smartphone.
(While Google and Apple throw not insignificant resources into competing, with the help of mature mobile ecosystems)
by ethbr1
5/22/2025 at 5:11:50 PM
the iPod / Walkman are there as well, but definitely less ubiquitousby dmonitor
5/22/2025 at 5:35:28 PM
Yeah, LOL it definitely won't be AR like this with compute in the cloud:https://arstechnica.com/google/2025/05/glass-redux-google-ai...
by kurthr
5/22/2025 at 4:38:37 PM
You see, nobody wants their phone listening to them all the time. But a third core device? That’s different!You’re going to love it!
by tmpz22
5/22/2025 at 4:28:21 PM
>stealth will be important for their ultimate success to avoid competitors copying the product before it’s ready.shouldn't statements like this be bearish for OpenAI? If what they had internally was so far ahead of everyone else then why would it matter if the physical hardware were cloned, the model would make the difference in the same way the iPhone software and focus on scroll fidelity made it leagues above the LG Prada.
by whywhywhywhy
5/22/2025 at 4:37:40 PM
None of it makes any difference because they've managed to be worth over 300 billion without an ounce of moat.This shit is gonna go nuclear, and probably soon. Valuation is utterly detached from reality for the mediocre products they've shipped and the only reason it's still going is the tech sector doesn't have anything else to show for itself. Purchasing user numbers must be absolutely pathetic what with the complete silence on them, and even their highest tier paying customers have them hemorrhaging money, let alone all the cheaper/free ones.
Microsoft clearly got tired of being the pay-pig and is scaling back datacenters. OpenAI is supposedly taking up that stock but the projects are stalling because OpenAI doesn't have any money. Softbank is supposedly funding them but it also doesn't have the money, which is a huge issue what with them being the only substantial investor. And that's JUST for THIS YEAR. By all accounts they'll need dozens more billions for 2026.
For what? Chat bots and boring pictures/video that nobody aside from AI hype people give the slightest damn about.
Like, to put this in perspective: OpenAI is supposedly worth a tenth of what APPLE is worth. Fucking APPLE. Love em or hate em, Apple is one of the most valuable companies on the fucking planet, for a reason. What on Earth is OpenAI shifting in terms of actual products-to-customers that deserves to be in the same ZIP code as the Mac, iPhone or iPad?
Ludicrous.
by ToucanLoucan
5/22/2025 at 7:34:23 PM
> For what? Chat bots and boring pictures/video that nobody aside from AI hype people give the slightest damn about.I shed a tear when I saw those Sora demos of people walking down a street. I'd never seen anything so beautiful in my life. No human has ever filmed anything so good. Just amazeballs.
by palmotea
5/22/2025 at 5:06:24 PM
The only thing they have of value is the ChatGPT brand. They have no moat, and AI needs to be embedded in products to have value. OpenAI doesn't sell any products, and anyone can sell tokens through an API.by jeremyjh
5/22/2025 at 4:43:07 PM
> He suggested the $6.5 billion acquisition has the potential to add $1 trillion in value to OpenAI, according to a recording reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.Crazy part is there will be investors who will absolutely believe this. Nothing has shattered the illusion the rich are smarter than everyone else for me than the sagas of madoff, ftx, holmes and now the AI hype.
by wnevets
5/23/2025 at 11:34:54 AM
"has the potential to" is pretty open ended. Who knows - maybe Ive will come up with another iphone like device? It's not probable but it's possible.by tim333
5/22/2025 at 4:51:02 PM
It is so blatantly obvious OpenAI is paying these ridiculous prices for acquisitions to try and justify their own valuation. The emperor has no clothes, indeed.by athorax
5/22/2025 at 4:54:24 PM
I must say I lost a lot of respect for Jony Ive in the last couple of days.by baxtr
5/22/2025 at 5:30:25 PM
His last few years at Apple lost him a large amount of my respect (or at least proved he wasn't the genius he had been portrayed as) but this OpenAI move took whatever respect was left to 0.That video they posted was completely over the top and absurd (especially without announcing/shipping a product). Watching Sam and Jony fellate each other was nauseating. I don't SNL could have done a better (worse?) job.
by joshstrange
5/22/2025 at 5:54:03 PM
Yeah, Steve Jobs would have not approved.by baxtr
5/22/2025 at 5:10:07 PM
He saw investors pouring tens of billions into a big money pit and has siphoned off probably a billion or two for himself. The boy done good as we say here in Britain.by rwmj
5/22/2025 at 5:20:42 PM
I guess selling your soul is always an option when you’re running out of money!by baxtr
5/22/2025 at 6:24:17 PM
> and would be a third core device a person would put on their desk after a MacBook Pro and an iPhone.Or build an AI-enabled device that replaces both. All you really need is local sensors, local emitters, and lots of local+remote processing+storage.
The laptop/desktop mostly goes away, when most people won't need desks, since most desk-requiring jobs will soon be done passably by "AI". (Whether the "AI" is actual intelligence, or just robo-plagiarism of training material.) Do you really need a keyboard, when there's nothing for you to type. Do you really need a bunch of screens, when you're not looking at and reasoning about lots of information.
If anyone is going to build a one-device for the idle and disaffected eloi, to be harvested of remaining value, by the weathly, who increasingly consolidate all of the wealth and power, it may well be OpenAI building that device.
Apple isn't the best candidate to nail this, because they have lingering whiffs of hippie counterculture in their self-image. And for a long time, Google thought of themselves as the good ones, with vestiges of that enduring, no matter how much DoubleClick metastasizes. But OpenAI staff was confronted unambiguously with its true self early on, so doesn't have the encumbrances that the others do.
by neilv
5/22/2025 at 5:20:12 PM
* The first generation were those silly AI pins last year.* The second generation will be this opaqueAI ivePad.
* And when the third generation comes out, all phones will already have whatever makes this special.
I don't think Sama and Ive are smarter than everyone else, but even if they are, I don't see how this flies.
by sigmaisaletter
5/22/2025 at 4:53:00 PM
People already carry around a smartphone plenty capable of accessing AI, whether in the cloud or increasingly local. Smartphones, with screens, are not going away because people have plenty of uses for screens from photos to videos to texting, etc.The WSJ article says this proposed device can either sit on your desk or go in your pocket, so it's basically either an Alexa in-home device or a bigger pocket-bound Humana pin, or some worse-than-either fits-in-your-pocket compromise.
Not sure what Altman was thinking in paying $6B for an idea that seems bound to fail, unless it is indeed part of a plan to help him cash in on OpenAI, even if that means throwing $6B of stock away.
by HarHarVeryFunny
5/22/2025 at 5:10:07 PM
> Smartphones, with screens, are not going away because people have plenty of uses for screens from photos to videos to texting, etc.I agree but for the sake of discussion: could smart glasses fill this role?
by oops
5/22/2025 at 5:31:10 PM
I don't think so, for a bunch of reasons:1) Battery size/life compromised by form factor (or have cumbersome wire to battery pack in pocket)
2) WiFi/5G connectivity - form factor seems to compromise antenna design, and anyways health impact of antenna on your head all day is unknown
3) Fashion - most people care more about appearance than any debatable benefit smart glasses might have (AR?) over a smart phone
4) Smart glasses AR displays are a cool piece of tech, but quality-wise nowhere near that of a phone screen, used for photos and videos - TikTok on smart glasses ?
5) Texting seems a very popular type of communication for all age groups, and much preferred (and more discreet) that having to voice dictate into smart glasses, or listen to incoming messages via smart glasses speakers
It just seems that a smartphone provides so much, checks so many boxes in terms of features and usability, that most people won't want to not have one, and if you do have one, then the incremental benefit of another device becomes minimal.
by HarHarVeryFunny
5/22/2025 at 7:10:44 PM
Compute and battery aren't small enough yet, glasses have to be fashionable.by micromacrofoot
5/22/2025 at 7:20:58 PM
Altman is trying to do an end run around Google/Apple/Microsoft. They’ve got search, now they’re adding hardware, next they’ll extend their interface to replace the traditional OS with an AI agent. Altman probably has a social strategy as well.I think they’ll fail because they’re discounting how much energy it takes for people to change ecosystems, but it’s a great idea that the big boys will copy.
by deepfriedchokes
5/23/2025 at 12:36:52 AM
> [Altman] suggested the $6.5 billion acquisition has the potential to add $1 trillion in value to OpenAI, according to a recording reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.So the plan is to mine personal data from every user and sell it, then?
by ethbr1
5/22/2025 at 4:31:04 PM
It's honestly only because apple and google have so locked down their devices that we can't use them as little digital motherships for all of our peripherals.the whole pattern of usage for the slab phone medium is based on sucking up as much of our attention as possible.
That and doing anything with bluetooth makes one long for a simple life in the woods.
by fellowniusmonk
5/22/2025 at 4:37:11 PM
You can go install another OS on your android phones like LineageOS.by adrr
5/22/2025 at 4:48:56 PM
This is only possible for a minority of android hardware. Non-flagship and low-end devices will never get support.by McGlockenshire
5/22/2025 at 6:05:53 PM
Also, never mind having RCS messaging if you switch from stock android messenger.by fellowniusmonk
5/22/2025 at 4:34:21 PM
So basically an Alexa/Echo except with always-on microphone and camera communicating with OpenAI's servers?by DebtDeflation
5/22/2025 at 4:38:20 PM
Every other device (audio player, gps, portable games console, camera, watch, calculator, alarm clock, notebook, flashlight, dictaphone, step counter) was folded into the phone.I can't understand why anyone thinks this wouldn't be. Software eats the world.
by flir
5/22/2025 at 6:22:38 PM
It's absurd.>"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 would be a third core device a person would put on their desk after a MacBook Pro and an iPhone."
Why exactly would I want a "third" device for my desk or a second one for my pocket?
The only additional device I'd consider at this point would be an eyeglass sized VR/AR.
by DebtDeflation
5/22/2025 at 4:24:01 PM
Can't he just ask one of his diffusion models to come up with a design?by amelius
5/22/2025 at 4:41:26 PM
It would be made for a hand with eight fingersby paradox460
5/22/2025 at 4:48:59 PM
> He suggested the $6.5 billion acquisition has the potential to add $1 trillion in value to OpenAI, according to a recording reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.Not sure if he's high on his own supply or just lying through his teeth, but it's one of those. You're going to get value comparable to owning half of Google from acquiring a small hardware design team? Really?
by jsheard
5/22/2025 at 4:41:24 PM
I’m not looking for this product but my daughter could use something that identifies and reads everything in the environment that she can just queryby Isamu
5/22/2025 at 5:13:17 PM
maybe it will also be able to give her love and affection, and feed her and change her diapers. Then we can finally realize the dream of parenting without human interaction! because the only reason to grow new adults is to keep that gdp line going up!by lantry
5/22/2025 at 4:58:15 PM
Can the device work offline or does it need constant connection to a data center? Already sounds like a security and privacy nightmare.by einrealist
5/22/2025 at 4:56:11 PM
AI today use text. Human prefer image or(and) sound. Therefore assistent must be a big screen, ocular or .... implantby eabeezxjc
5/22/2025 at 4:40:59 PM
If Plaud.ai is a Nokia phone, I hope what they’re building is like iPhone-level of change.Will we have another moment like this: https://youtu.be/MnrJzXM7a6o
by hbarka
5/23/2025 at 9:05:42 AM
I struggle to see what any new device could deliver that a smartphone can't.by matthewfelgate
5/22/2025 at 7:56:22 PM
> 24 points by MrJagil 5 hours ago [...] 73 commentsDon't forget to upvote when you comment.
by neilv
5/22/2025 at 4:46:08 PM
It's not rocket science, these people aren't even all that clever. It's going to be some kind of camera (maybe lidar) and microphone, there's nothing else it can be — you need to put something into AI to get something out of it.It'll probably be some goofy 180/360 degree camera — phones aren't really designed to be omnipresent so the form factor isn't ideal for the always-on nature of AI they're trying to reach.
by micromacrofoot
5/22/2025 at 5:05:55 PM
Most likely, a glorified black monolith brick like Ive loves them, without any display or a really small oled. Or a stick, like a pen you can clip on your pocket, but the battery may be an issue.by y04nn
5/22/2025 at 6:07:22 PM
Yeah sounds about right. Maybe a detachable module with camera/mic that communicates back to the compute brick (which also serves as a charger).At the end of the day, essentially a phone with some AI-specific form factor. There's just not much else it can be.
by micromacrofoot