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What the hell is an "AI device"? Unless we're talking robotics, I don't see why you would need a separate device for AI. Seems like we already have all the rig

by brap 3y ago

What the hell is an "AI device"? Unless we're talking robotics, I don't see why you would need a separate device for AI. Seems like we already have all the right form factors (phones, speakers, etc). This reminds me of when Facebook tried to make a Facebook phone. Turned out iPhones and Androids were significantly better as phones and they could do Facebook just fine.

JumpCrisscross 3y ago
> What the hell is an "AI device"? Puck and a pair of AirPods? (Maybe compute in the case?) A device optimised to run a set of LLMs and not sacrifice battery for e.g. a screen seems like it would have a niche, if it just worked. Picture the AIs profiled in the later series of Westworld.
- mlnj 3y ago
  Would it not make more sense to use OpenAI LLMs to be hosted away from these device. It would also align with Jony Ive's focus on design over everything else. Yet another data consumption device?
  - JumpCrisscross 3y ago
    > Would it not make more sense to use OpenAI LLMs to be hosted away from these device The lag is annoying. I don’t remember Ive’s position on privacy, but shipping everything off to the cloud isn’t great for that. There might be satisfaction in having a childlike AI running on device who can call grandma—or whatever-when it needs help. One could tune it to different levels of spontaneity (“that’s a Magpie, in case you’re interested”) and proactiveness (“I noticed a new restaurant nearby and you haven’t eaten all day, so I grabbed a placeholder reservation”) that shouldn’t require a lot of phoning home to the mothership.
f6v 3y ago
There was this device in Neeuromancer. Like a small stone, you touch it and can talk to AI in your head. That’d be awesome.
- mushufasa 3y ago
  Ya. Even a limited use AirPod-as-language-translator-in-real-time could be a good use of technology (something like this was in Hitchhiker's Guide and many other sci-fi). The leap in AI skill to trust translations more could enable the leap from looking at a phone to just having a bug in your ear.
  - eightnoneone 3y ago
    The babel fish. https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Babel_Fish https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Babel_Fish
  - BTinfinity 3y ago
    Interestingly there's already an AI powered earbud [0] on the market that claims to do that; whether it's any good or if OpenAI can do better remains to be seen. But how long before it's capturing audio from your conversations to use as training data? [0] https://www.timekettle.co/ https://www.timekettle.co/
  - lancesells 3y ago
    If you reverse this you could have your offshore call center sound onshore in a matter of one OpenAI sign up.
belter 3y ago
Do know the margins to be made on a Prime Radiant? Bullish...
highwaylights 3y ago
The very real leaks that I’ve very really seen suggest it’s a bit like HAL-3000 with an upgraded bezel-less Retina display red orb that goes all the way to the diamond-cut chamfered edges, but when you ask it to do something instead of saying “I’m afraid I can’t do that, Dave” it starts playing latter-day U2 albums.
- HAL3000 3y ago
  > it’s a bit like HAL-3000 Dave, there is only one HAL3000.
farco12 3y ago
I always love reading myopic technology takes on this site. Based on the article, it sounds like they're in exploratory talks to figure out what that "AI device" could be. I agree that it's likely we've already figured out the right form factors for such a device, but it's not a leap to imagine a significantly better UX than what we have from today's computing devices. The movie "Her" seems like a decent blueprint for a post-smartphone "AI device".
foobarian 3y ago
If they can come up with an Alexa/Siri kind of experience that doesn’t make me want to throw it out the window, I can see the separate device not being too hard of a sell, while at the same time avoiding being at the mercy of whichever device provider they would have to play along with otherwise.
- fnordpiglet 3y ago
  Of course Alexa is getting a LLM as announced recently in the next few weeks. I don’t think Amazon and Apple are going to miss the bandwagon. On the Apple front they added a very small LLM to the keyboard autocorrect that is better at semantically correcting and predicting what you’re writing in iOS 17. It’s a ducking lot better already, but I imagine over the years it’ll round out to be incredibly useful.
stagger87 3y ago
> What the hell is an "AI device"? A phrase used to extract a billion dollars from idiot investors.
zffr 3y ago
Maybe it will be something like Humane’s AI Pin

by brap 3y ago

JumpCrisscross 3y ago

> What the hell is an "AI device"? Puck and a pair of AirPods? (Maybe compute in the case?) A device optimised to run a set of LLMs and not sacrifice battery for e.g. a screen seems like it would have a niche, if it just worked. Picture the AIs profiled in the later series of Westworld.

mlnj 3y ago
Would it not make more sense to use OpenAI LLMs to be hosted away from these device. It would also align with Jony Ive's focus on design over everything else. Yet another data consumption device?
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago
  > Would it not make more sense to use OpenAI LLMs to be hosted away from these device The lag is annoying. I don’t remember Ive’s position on privacy, but shipping everything off to the cloud isn’t great for that. There might be satisfaction in having a childlike AI running on device who can call grandma—or whatever-when it needs help. One could tune it to different levels of spontaneity (“that’s a Magpie, in case you’re interested”) and proactiveness (“I noticed a new restaurant nearby and you haven’t eaten all day, so I grabbed a placeholder reservation”) that shouldn’t require a lot of phoning home to the mothership.

f6v 3y ago

There was this device in Neeuromancer. Like a small stone, you touch it and can talk to AI in your head. That’d be awesome.

mushufasa 3y ago
Ya. Even a limited use AirPod-as-language-translator-in-real-time could be a good use of technology (something like this was in Hitchhiker's Guide and many other sci-fi). The leap in AI skill to trust translations more could enable the leap from looking at a phone to just having a bug in your ear.
- eightnoneone 3y ago
  The babel fish. https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Babel_Fish https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Babel_Fish
- BTinfinity 3y ago
  Interestingly there's already an AI powered earbud [0] on the market that claims to do that; whether it's any good or if OpenAI can do better remains to be seen. But how long before it's capturing audio from your conversations to use as training data? [0] https://www.timekettle.co/ https://www.timekettle.co/
- lancesells 3y ago
  If you reverse this you could have your offshore call center sound onshore in a matter of one OpenAI sign up.

belter 3y ago

Do know the margins to be made on a Prime Radiant? Bullish...

highwaylights 3y ago

The very real leaks that I’ve very really seen suggest it’s a bit like HAL-3000 with an upgraded bezel-less Retina display red orb that goes all the way to the diamond-cut chamfered edges, but when you ask it to do something instead of saying “I’m afraid I can’t do that, Dave” it starts playing latter-day U2 albums.

HAL3000 3y ago
> it’s a bit like HAL-3000 Dave, there is only one HAL3000.

farco12 3y ago

I always love reading myopic technology takes on this site. Based on the article, it sounds like they're in exploratory talks to figure out what that "AI device" could be. I agree that it's likely we've already figured out the right form factors for such a device, but it's not a leap to imagine a significantly better UX than what we have from today's computing devices. The movie "Her" seems like a decent blueprint for a post-smartphone "AI device".

foobarian 3y ago

If they can come up with an Alexa/Siri kind of experience that doesn’t make me want to throw it out the window, I can see the separate device not being too hard of a sell, while at the same time avoiding being at the mercy of whichever device provider they would have to play along with otherwise.

fnordpiglet 3y ago
Of course Alexa is getting a LLM as announced recently in the next few weeks. I don’t think Amazon and Apple are going to miss the bandwagon. On the Apple front they added a very small LLM to the keyboard autocorrect that is better at semantically correcting and predicting what you’re writing in iOS 17. It’s a ducking lot better already, but I imagine over the years it’ll round out to be incredibly useful.

stagger87 3y ago

> What the hell is an "AI device"? A phrase used to extract a billion dollars from idiot investors.

zffr 3y ago

Maybe it will be something like Humane’s AI Pin