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Jony Ive and Sam Altman
(OpenAI)
Dreamy Team

What we know about the device from OpenAI and former Apple design lead Jony Ive

They don’t think it will kill the smartphone — yet.

Rani Molla

Yesterday, OpenAI announced it was buying former Apple design lead Jony Ive’s AI device startup for $6.5 billion. Ive’s startup, io, would provide OpenAI with a dedicated unit for developing AI-powered devices. Based on reporting from The Wall Street Journal from an internal OpenAI meeting yesterday and an interview with Bloomberg, we now know a little bit more about what the first of a “family of devices” might be like.

  • The devices are meant to be “companions” that are part of everyday life.

  • They will be “fully aware of a user’s surroundings and life, will be unobtrusive, [and] able to rest in one’s pocket or on one’s desk,” WSJ says.

  • Developers are conceiving of it as a third device people will need, in addition to an iPhone and a MacBook Pro.

  • It’s not a phone or glasses and is meant to wean users off screens.

  • It could include headphones or cameras.

  • OpenAI plans to ship 100 million of these devices “faster than any company has ever shipped 100 million of something new before.”

  • They expect to release a device by late 2026.

  • It’s not going to kill the iPhone: “In the same way that the smartphone didn’t make the laptop go away, I don’t think our first thing is going to make the smartphone go away,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Bloomberg. “It is a totally new kind of thing.”

Let’s hope it’s at least more successful than notable AI device flops like the Humane Ai Pin and the Rabbit r1 AI companion.

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Meta execs could make hundreds of millions of dollars — if the company reaches a $9 trillion valuation

Meta, which currently has a market cap of $1.5 trillion, has structured a new executive compensation program that implies a valuation up to 6x higher, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings reported by The Wall Street Journal.

That means some top executives, like CTO Andrew Bosworth and CFO Susan Li, could gain hundreds of millions of dollars if the shares reach those levels, pointing to a roughly $9 trillion valuation by 2031. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is not part of the program, the company confirmed.

The company’s expenses grew 40% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, largely driven by employee compensation after shelling out heavily to recruit AI talent. The latest plan suggests those costs could climb even further.

That means some top executives, like CTO Andrew Bosworth and CFO Susan Li, could gain hundreds of millions of dollars if the shares reach those levels, pointing to a roughly $9 trillion valuation by 2031. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is not part of the program, the company confirmed.

The company’s expenses grew 40% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, largely driven by employee compensation after shelling out heavily to recruit AI talent. The latest plan suggests those costs could climb even further.

tech

New Mexico jury orders Meta to pay $375 million in child sexual exploitation trial

Meta has been ordered to pay $375 million in civil penalties by a New Mexico jury after the company was found to have violated state consumer protection laws by enabling child sexual exploitation. Meta was accused of failing to protect underage users from adults seeking to harm them, which led to real-world abuse.

Meta has denied the allegations, and spokesperson Andy Stone posted on Threads:

“We respectfully disagree with the verdict and will appeal. We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and are clear about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors or harmful content. We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online.”

Meta has denied the allegations, and spokesperson Andy Stone posted on Threads:

“We respectfully disagree with the verdict and will appeal. We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and are clear about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors or harmful content. We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online.”

tech

Reports: OpenAI winding down Sora as Altman focuses on data centers

The Wall Street Journal and The Information report that OpenAI is discontinuing its once viral Sora text-to-video generation app.

Sora debuted late last year and started off scorching hot, but quickly lost steam.

Per The Information report, CEO Sam Altman has told staff he is shifting responsibilities to focus on building data centers. He also will no longer directly oversee OpenAI’s safety and security teams. Altman shared with staff as well that initial development of OpenAI’s next AI model — code-named Spud — has been completed.

Per The Information report, CEO Sam Altman has told staff he is shifting responsibilities to focus on building data centers. He also will no longer directly oversee OpenAI’s safety and security teams. Altman shared with staff as well that initial development of OpenAI’s next AI model — code-named Spud — has been completed.

tech

Meta and Arm team up to build a new class of data center chips

The AI boom was powered by companies training models using Nvidia GPUs.

But now as the field enters the age of inference, the humble CPU may be reclaiming its place in the spotlight.

Today Meta announced a partnership with Arm Holdings to build a new class of data center silicon.

The companies are teaming up to design chips that are custom-made for inference, the computing task that actually processes queries — vital work that companies are looking to optimize as they try to fit more and more computing power in their massive data centers.

The first chip from the partnership is the Arm AGI CPU, which is described as a data center CPU designed for Meta’s family of apps.

Meta’s head of infrastructure, Santosh Janardhan, said in a press release:

“We worked alongside Arm to develop the Arm AGI CPU to deploy an efficient compute platform that significantly improves our data center performance density and supports a multi-generation roadmap for our evolving AI systems.”

The companies are teaming up to design chips that are custom-made for inference, the computing task that actually processes queries — vital work that companies are looking to optimize as they try to fit more and more computing power in their massive data centers.

The first chip from the partnership is the Arm AGI CPU, which is described as a data center CPU designed for Meta’s family of apps.

Meta’s head of infrastructure, Santosh Janardhan, said in a press release:

“We worked alongside Arm to develop the Arm AGI CPU to deploy an efficient compute platform that significantly improves our data center performance density and supports a multi-generation roadmap for our evolving AI systems.”

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