Raphael ThysIs the smartphone about to be consigned to history?
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Published in
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3 min read
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6 days ago
What happens when the best-known figure in the development of generative algorithms is in talks with the man who designed the iPhone and a banker obsessed with financing high-impact technological projects?
Media reports say Sam Altman, Jony Ive and Masayoshi Son are working on a project to create a ground-breaking “iPhone of AI”, a permanently connected assistant we can consult through an as yet-to-be defined interface.
Jony Ive is apparently obsessed with abandoning the screen, feeling a moral obligation to mitigate the unintended consequences of the iPhone such as app addiction: he even himself imposes screen times on his children. Masayoshi Son controls 90% of Arm Holdings, one of the leaders in the development of low-power microprocessor architectures used on many mobile devices. Finally, Sam Altman has just recently presented a new version of ChatGPT that can interact by voice and accept images as input.
What could the three be talking about? Getting rid of screens is a good idea: they require our sole attention, as the number of road accidents due to phone use testifies, never mind the annoyance of having to swerve past people staring into their screens as they walk. Given that glasses have enjoyedlittle success so far, I would imagine they will be focus on hearing, on transmitting information through sound.
In which case, headphones are not going to work, because they also tend to isolate us from the wider world. One solution would be bone conduction; devices that allow us to capture and receive information without blocking our auditory canals, that are reasonably discreet, are not widely used, despite having been on the market for a relatively long time, but mainly focused on sports.
A non-intrusive bone conduction headset that could interact with a generative AI assistant, equipped witha camera to accept images as potential inputs is an interesting, and potentially controversial proposition.Cameras are seen as an invasion of other people’s privacy, although we…