io future
OpenAI acquiring io for 6.5B and the energy it puts behind the creative collaboration with Jony Ive towards shipping the product next year is the biggest news for me today.
I wonder what form factor we will see first. I guess a camera, a few microphones, and speakers in a small form factor. A way for AI to see, to hear, and to engage in a conversation. And it has to be paired with a screen that fits in a pocket to complete the platform.
Glasses and earpieces both have disadvantages of being in the way of natural human interactions: are you listening to me or to the earpiece? Are you looking at me or at the screen?
This might be the first viable agentic web hardware. And an ecosystem of agents engaging with the web and reality on our behalf. I’m not sure apps make sense on a platform like this… more like services that leverage shared ways of creating widgets in conversations. The whole platform is about augmented conversations.
A new platform emerging from ChatGPT and transforming the way we are doing computing. An alternative to established platforms and a new marketplace for intelligence where new startups will emerge. I wonder what a day using io might look like?
I imagine a device the size of my AirPods case with a wide camera that can see me and what I’m looking at at the same time. Obviously, a very responsive voice interface that can pick up my tone of voice and read my gestures, understand where I’m looking at: enablers for natural interactions. So I typing this on my iPad, and I have a thought: I look at the io (which brings its attention) and say something like “Order a box of pens like this one, but in green color” nodding on a pen at my desk.
So my life now has a sphere of awareness for my AI. Where it breaks is when I go on a call with AirPods and talk with someone over, say, FaceTime. I know a company that can break this barrier, but it is not OpenAI.
I think we will see fierce competition for the personal space where natural interactions can take place with OpenAI trying to pierce in and Apple and Google defending at all costs.
Renders by ChatGPT based on my sketch:
It will be fun to see how actual io hardware looks like in 2026. Stay tuned!
Did you watch introduction/teaser video? I love how they make San Francisco one of the three main characters. Beautiful shots of the city.
