OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft Chase Wearable AI
Excellent roundup from the Information on the current state of wearable AI pursuits amongst big tech and AI startups alike. The next major era of computing is on the horizon and perhaps one of these devices will be the one that starts the revolution. Expect CES in a few weeks to provide additional glimpses of the next major computing platform…
Next year’s artificial intelligence battle is coming into focus—and it’s all about glasses.
As they release more powerful AI that can understand images and language, Meta Platforms, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and others are racing to apply the technology to smart glasses and other wearable devices with forward-facing cameras. It’s a vision many of the companies have discussed or worked on for years, but they have a new reason to think they can pull it off: the sudden rise of multimodal AI that understands drawings, charts, objects and hand gestures in addition to text and audio.
For instance, OpenAI recently discussed embedding its object recognition software, known as GPT-4 with Vision, into products from Snapchat’s parent company, according to a person familiar with the situation. That could result in new features for Snap’s Spectacles smart glasses.
Putting these capabilities in wearable and other mobile devices is still a ways off, but it could bring about voice-enabled AI assistants reminiscent of those in sci-fi films such as “Her.” Those assistants would aim to be as transformative as the smartphone by doing a range of things not possible today, such as acting as a tutor for a student working on a paper or on math problems, or giving people information about their surroundings when they ask for it, from translating signs to explaining how to fix car troubles.
AI models “will be so fundamental for everything that you do, that they will become available in the most basic layers of computers and phones, and other devices,” said Pablo Mendes, CEO of Objective, an AI-powered search company, and a former engineering manager at Apple. “I don’t think it’s far” away from happening, he said.
Full story here.
