AI isn’t only going to change how we work and play, but it’s going to change the computing devices we work and play on.
Elon Musk has suggested that apps and operating systems will be “things of the past” because of the changes brought about by AI. He said that phones would only be used for inference, and all functionality would be generated on the fly through AI systems on the phone.
“OpenAI lets you run a billion-dollar o4-Mini level open-source model for free locally on your phone. ACCELERATE,” X user @VraserX had posted on X, while sharing the benchmarks of OpenAI’s open models. OpenAI had released a 20b model that could potentially be run on a high-end phone.
Musk seemed to be impressed with the results — and more so with the fact that the model could be run on a phone. “Can’t yet do it on a phone, but phones will obviously simply become edge nodes to run inference for generating pixels and acoustics,” he said. “Operating systems and apps will be things of the past,” he added.
Musk seemed to be suggesting that given that powerful AI models can now be run on phones, phones of the future would be able to perform all tasks by themselves. Today, most powerful AI inference, such as running models like ChatGPT, image generators, or voice synthesis, happens in the cloud, not on-device. But if powerful AI models can be run on the phone itself, rather than storing static apps or UIs, phones will dynamically generate all visuals and sounds on the fly using AI, such as a virtual assistant generating a unique voice, or an interface building itself for your needs. Musk also extended this argument to operating systems, which is the bedrock on which apps are run — he implied that with no apps required, operating systems wouldn’t be required either. Instead of choosing and using apps, users will interact with an AI that generates whatever experience they need in the moment.
Musk isn’t the only person who has talked about apps being generated on the fly. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said that user interfaces will go away with AI, and they’ll be generated dynamically based on what the user wants at any given moment. And with Musk now saying that future systems won’t even need apps or operating systems, we might be in for a more dramatic rethinking of computing in the coming years than we’d initially believed.