OpenAI discovers it takes time (not just design) to build great hardware
Thoughts that OpenAI may become a hardware manufacturer with a Jony Ive-designed product to challenge Apple may yet prove correct, but there’s some significant structural problems that need to be resolved before anything like that can happen.
What is known
Stop to consider it and this should have been recognized right from the start.
After all, when it comes to hardware manufacturing there are finite limits to things like components, memory, and processors, and at the AI end where OpenAI will inevitably play, competition is fierce.
That battle isn’t just about components for the device, but also about components for the servers the Ai sits on, including competition for energy, location, and water. These may be more boring problems to think about than the Mac Pro-like styling of Jony Ive’s new boat lamp, but they exist all the same.
The thing is, while Apple has its partnerships with manufacturing partners, and has built an ecosystem of its own upon which it can layer additional tools, accessories, and services, Open AI has none of these things, which, while giving it the advantage of an unencumbered start, it also has the disadvantage that to bring its tech into the world it will need to build the entire ecosystem from scratch.
Building an ecosystem one sale at a time
That’s not just manufacturing, but everything else as well, from channel relationships to regulatory acceptance and beyond.
That’s even before you figure out how many servers it requires to power just one always-on but not weird at all AI girlfriends Needless to say, all these structural problems are now coming home to roost as OpenAI and Jony Ive’s company let slip that the debut product has been delayed.
Why?
Because they can’t get the processors they need, can’t resolve problems around personal privacy and always on gadgets (hello, Siri in France) and can’t seem to be finding it easy to define the personality of the AI assistant they build.
As Steve Jobs once said, most overnight successes “took a long time”.
Ive probably recognizes this, but so does Apple, and as both companies explore new visions around ambient computing, it remains open to question which of the two firms will prevail. Or if they’ll find a partnership makes more sense.
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