OpenAI spends $6.5 billion to create AI devices | Press review n°7
What to take away from the news on artificial intelligence during the week of May 19 to 25, 2025.
Welcome to the seventh press review of Artificial reality. I publish a selection of the latest important developments in AI every week. Have a good read!
📰 Read
OpenAI spends $6.5 billion to create AI devices
The company which owns ChatGPT is buying the hardware startup io for $6.5 billion, its most expensive purchase to date, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.
Designer Jony Ive, famous for having worked with Apple on the conception of the MacBook, iPhone, iPod, iPad and Apple Watch, co-founded io in 2024. His startup will now have the task of developing “a new family of products” based on OpenAI’s artificial intelligence systems, stated the company in a press release.
Around 55 hardware engineers, software developers and manufacturing experts will join OpenAI as part of this acquisition. The first product is expected to debut in 2026.
In a video published on Wednesday, Jony Ive and Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, present their project. They want to create devices which will allow to interact differently with AI, without necessarily having to use a computer or a smartphone.
Other companies have already ventured in this direction, with little success. In November 2023, Humane Inc. launched the AI Pin, a wearable device we could ask questions to. However, its numerous technical issues have weighed down sales and the company announced in February 2025 that it has stopped selling it.
In January 2024, Rabbit Inc launched the Rabbit R1, a device similar to the AI Pin and just as faulty.
The Wall Street Journal revealed additional details about the OpenAI device: it will be screen-free and contextually aware.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo wrote Thursday that the current protoype is slightly larger than the AI Pin, that one of the intended use cases is wearing the device around the neck and that it will have cameras and microphones.
Cognitive scientist Gary Marcus, who writes the Substack Marcus on AI, criticized this project in an article published on Saturday:
“A camera and microphone. You would be monitored all the time. Everything you say, everything you do, and not just recorded, but analyzed, interpreted and turned into data, which of course OpenAI train their models on. (Didn’t I tell you OpenAI was gonna shift into surveillance?)”
- Gary Marcus
Seven important news this week
Inside the story that enraged OpenAI (MIT Technology Review)
Exclusive: Musk’s DOGE expanding his Grok AI in US government, raising conflict concerns (Reuters)
Microsoft Build 2025: news and announcements from the developer conference (The Verge)
Anthropic’s AI resorts to blackmail in simulations (Semafor)
Why Apple Still Hasn’t Cracked AI (Bloomberg)
Read the other articles of the week I have selected by clicking here.
🎥 Watch
Inside Stargate
Bloomberg published a report on Tuesday about the first data center of the Stargate Project, a collaboration of OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank to build $500 billion worth of infrastructure for artificial intelligence throughout the United States.
Seven important videos this week
We're pursing a path of AI development that's extremely harmful to a lot of people, says Karen Hao (CNBC)
Dismantling the Empire of AI with Karen Hao (Blood in the Machine)
How Smart Devices Spy On Your Home—And How To Avoid It (Wired)
Google I/O 2025 keynote in 32 minutes (The Verge)
Microsoft Build event in 15 minutes (The Verge)
Apple Struggles to Crack AI (Bloomberg)
Palmer Luckey on making autonomous weapons for the U.S. and its allies (60 Minutes)
Watch the other videos of the week I have selected by clicking here.
🔈 Listen
The AI Con
In the new episode of Tech Won’t Save Us, tech analyst Paris Marx interviews linguist Emily M. Bender and sociologist Alex Hanna on their book The AI Con, which was published last week.
They discuss the artificial intelligence hype, the negative impacts of generative AI, and AI boosters and doomers, among other topics.
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Have a good week,
Arnaud
