OpenAI Sees New Opportunity for Devices in AI Revolution
Startup is working on devices that are ‘ambient’ and can detach people from screens, COO Brad Lightcap says
Key Points
- OpenAI is exploring new AI devices to move beyond phone and web interfaces.
- OpenAI’s enterprise customer base has expanded to three million, up from two million in February.
- OpenAI is helping build an AI data center in Abu Dhabi, its first large-scale project outside the U.S.
OpenAI Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap said the AI revolution has ushered in an opportunity to create a new set of devices.
Lightcap, speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything event on Thursday, said that OpenAI is focused on building AI that is “truly personal.”
Right now, users access ChatGPT through web browsers and apps on a smartphone. OpenAI wants to build an “ambient computer layer” that can detach people from always having to be looking at a screen, he said. “There’s a lot that we have to do to develop models to succeed in that environment.”
Lightcap said he has “no idea” what device Chief Executive Sam Altman is working on with former Apple designer Jony Ive. The pair announced earlier this month that OpenAI is acquiring Ive’s company io in an all-equity deal that values it at $6.5 billion.
Ive, a chief architect of the iPhone, and his design firm are taking over creative and design control at OpenAI, where they will develop devices and other projects that will shape the future look and feel of AI, the Journal previously reported. Altman and Ive have taken pains to keep the exact nature of the first device they plan to make a secret.
In the interview, Lightcap also said that OpenAI’s enterprise customers have grown to three million, up from two million in February.
“We are growing quite fast in enterprise,” Lightcap said. He said the company is working with the California State University System and will make it available to about 500,000 students and faculty. He called it the “first AI-powered university system” in the country.
OpenAI also recently committed to helping build a giant artificial-intelligence data center in Abu Dhabi, marking its first large-scale project outside of the U.S. When asked about the choice of Abu Dhabi for a location, Lightcap emphasized that the U.A.E. is a “technology-forward” country. He said he was unsure of whether restrictions around political commentary in the U.A.E. will be applied to ChatGPT there.