AI is so radically changing how work is done that it could necessitate the creation of a new computing paradigm.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says that AI is already bringing about the third computing revolution, and this would require a new kind of computing device. “There have been two revolutions in computers in history,” he said on the Theo Von podcast. “There was the keyboard, mouse and screen, that thing that was invented in the seventies, where the people at Xerox Park figured out what has become the modern computer interface. And then in the early to mid, early two thousands, Apple figured out this idea of touch on a device. Those really those have been the two big ones,” he said.
“And I think now there can be a third. I think AI is,” Altman said. “It so changes the game that you can design a new kind of computer based off of a really smart AI where you can give a complex instruction to a system, it can go do it. You’ll trust that it gets it right, you’ll trust it to act on your behalf,” he added.
“It could maybe be aware of everything going on in this room and it could kind of not just be on or off, but lightly get our attention if it wants us to know something, or maybe more aggressively get our attention. It could really be following what we’re talking about here and remind us both of things later,” Altman said.
“And current hardware can’t do that. The current kind of computers we have, I don’t think they honor what the technology is really capable of. So I want to make a totally new kind of computer that is meant for this world of AI helping you all the time. I’m super excited about it,” he added.
Altman already seems to have set the wheels in motion to create such a device. OpenAI had acquired former Apple designer Jony Ive’s startup for $6.5 billion, and the two companies are working together on a company named “io” that will create a new hardware device. Rumours have been swirling about what this device could be — there has been speculation that it could be a pair of glasses, or a pod that you keep on your desk, or even something you wear on your chest. Altman now says that a new AI-first device should be in the background and constantly aware of what’s going on, so it does seem that it’ll be something on these lines. And with Altman laying the groundwork of this new product in the grandiose terms of a third computing revolution, OpenAI does seem to believe that a new AI-first hardware device could be game-changing for the world.