AirPods with a brain? OpenAI prepares its leap into the physical world
The news has been circulating in the halls of Silicon Valley for months. Since Jony Ive, the mind behind the design of the iPhone, sold his startup to OpenAI and joined the project, the rumor has grown. Now, a company executive confirms that the mysterious device is nearby.
Chris Lehane, director of global affairs at OpenAI, said via Axios that the company will announce its first hardware product in the second half of this year. Until now, everything has been a closely guarded secret.
The ‘Sweet Pea’ and the commitment to local AI
The project has a code name: ‘Sweet Pea’. The leaks suggest that it could be headphones. But not just any headphones.
The big news would be under the hood: a custom 2-nanometer processor that would allow artificial intelligence tasks to be executed directly on the device. Without constantly depending on the cloud. Faster, and perhaps more private.
“The company is close to announcing its first hardware product during the second half of the year,” said Chris Lehane.
The design also promises to be different. So much so that OpenAI would be looking for specialized manufacturers. According to Taiwanese media, Luxshare and Foxconn are the candidates to produce it.
A difficult market and the ghost of the ‘AI Pin’
The ambitions are enormous. A report indicates that OpenAI expects to sell 50 million units in the first year. To put it in context: it is getting into a ring dominated by heavyweights like Apple’s AirPods or Huawei’s FreeClip.
But the road is full of obstacles. The biggest challenge is not just making a pretty device, but making the AI really work and integrate seamlessly with other systems.
The shadow of the recent failure of the Humane AI Pin is long. Many startups have promised revolutionary gadgets with AI that have not met expectations. The million-dollar question: Can OpenAI, a software giant, succeed where others have stumbled in the world of hardware?
The answer will come in a few months.
