ChatGPT developer OpenAI has signed a contract with Chinese company Luxshare - which assembles Apple devices - to create some sort of custom gadget with AI, sources told The Information. This could open up new markets and give OpenAI an entry point into the consumer electronics space, which is now dominated by Apple, Samsung and Google.
Details
According to The Information, the device, ordered by OpenAI from Luxshare, is now in the prototype stage and is being developed as a context-aware handheld device tightly integrated with AI models. Context awareness refers to a gadget's ability to understand the situation around it using a camera, microphone, GPS, sensors and other data sources.
Such a product could challenge smartphones and traditional hardware platforms and take market share away from Apple and other electronics makers by offering users an alternative way to interact with AI, Reuters predicts. OpenAI and Luxshare did not respond to the agency's requests for comment.
This project, as analysts note, is one of the boldest attempts by an AI company to create a special device initially focused on artificial intelligence, rather than relying on existing platforms like smartphones and PCs. OpenAI's goal is to release an "AI-native" product, that is, a hardware device originally designed for AI models rather than "bolted on" to them post facto, Reuters writes.
What else is known
Earlier this year, OpenAI bought io Products, a startup founded by former Apple designer Jony Ive, for $6.5 billion. The startup develops hardware devices focused on artificial intelligence. This also underscores the company's ambitions to move beyond software development and into consumer electronics, Reuters points out.
Luxshare, one of the key assemblers of iPhones and AirPods, could provide OpenAI with a large-scale manufacturing capability, according to The Information. According to the publication, OpenAI has also approached China's Goertek, which makes components for AirPods, HomePods and Apple Watch, with an offer to supply sound modules and other components for future devices.
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
