The advent of the AI iPhone: does new tech show promise or peril?

During his time at Apple, Jony Ive became one of the most influential designers of his time – playing a pivotal role in the creation of the first iPhone, said Lauren Haughey on MailOnline. 

So ears have understandably pricked up at news that he is in "advanced talks" with Sam Altman of OpenAI – creator of the ChatGPT app – to craft an "iPhone of artificial intelligence" that will eventually be sold on the mass market. It’s hoped that the device, which is still in its "brainstorming" phase, will provide a "more natural and intuitive user experience" to AI interactions, said Jess Weatherbed on The Verge – just as touchscreen technology on the original iPhone revolutionised our interaction with the internet. 

'This era's Rockefeller'

They have secured over $1bn in funding from Softbank's Masayoshi Son. The Japanese tech investor is pushing for the recently floated UK chip designer Arm, in which he still holds a 90% stake, to "play a central role" in the development. Altman, 38, is famously "a doomsday prepper" – who has readied himself for any catastrophe that might destroy or enslave the human race, said Danny Fortson in The Sunday Times. But he also seems to be "working flat out to turn himself into this era’s Rockefeller". If he pulls off a mass-market AI device, "it would free OpenAI from its reliance on Apple and Google, the trillion-dollar behemoths behind the dominant phone operating systems".

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Just the prospect of that is likely to juice the company’s value, now put at $90bn, having tripled from an "already eye- watering" $29bn in April. OpenAI is now the most valuable private tech company after Elon Musk's SpaceX and TikTok owner ByteDance, despite having just $1bn in projected 2023 sales. "This is as frothy as it gets." But the valuation is grounded in the idea that AI will "remake virtually every aspect of life", much as oil did more than a century ago.

'Parental intervention will be required'

OpenAI reshaped the landscape of Silicon Valley, forcing "richer, more established tech giants to overhaul their product roadmaps", said The Wall Street Journal. Google is currently preparing a "general-purpose" program, dubbed Gemini; Meta is working on an open-source model; and Microsoft, which has invested heavily in OpenAI, is sitting pretty on "a huge paper profit".

Tech groups are now building "accessible and usable models” of generative AI “at extraordinary scale and speed", said John Thornhill in the FT. We should beware the unintended consequences. In Almendralejo in Spain, a group of boys shocked the community by circulating AI-generated nudes of 28 local girls. As generative AI enters its awkward teenage years, "parental intervention will be required".