by JOHN Mac GHILONN
You won’t carry this new AI-powered device – it will carry you
Sam Altman isn’t just coming for your job. He’s coming for your phone, and maybe your soul.
OpenAI just spent US$6.5 billion to acquire a secretive hardware company founded by Jony Ive—the man who helped make the iPhone what it is. You may not know Ive’s name, but you’ve touched his work. Literally. Every day.
When we think of the iPhone, we automatically think of Steve Jobs—the black turtleneck, the enormous ego. The messianic charisma. But the real sculptor behind it was Ive. He’s the architect responsible for Apple’s sleek, seductive gadgets. He’s the reason your phone feels like a lifestyle, not a tool. Ive turned cold metal into a fetish object.
Now he’s back. But not with Apple. With OpenAI.
And that should make you pay attention. Because this isn’t some design side-hustle or futuristic prototype for nerds in labs. This is OpenAI trying to build the first real AI-native device—a category killer designed not just to complement your phone but to replace it. A smart device that doesn’t just respond to your voice, but listens when you don’t speak. That doesn’t wait for your command, because it already knows what you want.
The goal is clear: Kill the iPhone, the interface and the screen. Become the last machine you ever carry.
What OpenAI is building is not a phone. It’s an ambient intelligence system—a wearable, maybe even implantable, AI that will live with you. On you. In you. It won’t need an app store. It is the app. It’ll whisper reminders, flag your blood pressure, read your micro-expressions, log your emotional state, track your speech, and give you answers before you ask.
This isn’t a more developed Siri. It’s something far more intimate. It doesn’t seek your input—it seeks your patterns. Your breath, your posture, your pulse. It’ll understand what stresses you out. What calms you down. Who you’re texting. What you’re hiding.
It’s not a search engine. It’s your new nervous system. You won’t need to tap it. You’ll forget it’s there. But it’ll always be listening. Always learning. Always predicting. Imagine something that makes Google seem slow and Apple seem old.
That’s what $6.5 billion just bought.
Altman didn’t hire Ive to make something cool. He hired him to make something irresistible. Because that’s Ive’s superpower: making invasive technology feel like art. Like you chose it. You didn’t buy an iPhone. You joined the cult.
Altman’s about to launch a new one.
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