Sam Altman who created ChatGPT now wants to scan your eyeballs with a glowing bowling ball to prove you’re human online, and he made a jingle about it. Seriously. I told you all about it back on May 6. Orb just dropped its first U.S. ad campaign. It’s basically the “If You’re Happy and You Know It” of human verification. It feels like a TSA PreCheck for whatever weird world we’re heading into. It already has 13 million verified humans across 20+ countries, with goals to hit 50 million by the end of 2025. Not me.
The next iPhone? Nope. This one has no screen, no apps, no keyboard
ChatGPT
I always want you to be tech ahead. That’s why I want you to think about what if your next device didn’t have a screen? Or apps? Or a keyboard?
That’s exactly why Sam Altman (OpenAI’s CEO) and Jony Ive (the former Apple design genius behind the iPhone) are working on a new kind of AI gadget that could completely change the way we interact with technology.
Your AI sidekick
This new device, still under wraps and code-named “IO,” isn’t a phone replacement. It’s something completely new. Altman says he believes they’ll sell 100 million of them. And I think he’s right.
It won’t show you TikToks or open Instagram. Instead, it listens, learns and helps. Think of it like an AI brain in your pocket. You talk to it, and it talks back, giving you useful answers, reminders, ideas, even directions, all without pulling out a screen or typing a single word.
It learns from you. That’s right: you, in your unfiltered glory, yelling, “Alexa, lower volume!” while trying to microwave coffee for the third time.
‘Where’s my kid’s soccer game?’
Imagine saying that out loud and your AI assistant tells you the location, pulls up the route and reminds you to pick up snacks on the way, all while you’re brushing your teeth or grabbing your keys. That’s the promise of what’s coming: zero friction tech that helps without overwhelming.
I love my devices, but I don’t want to be ruled by them. This could be a new kind of relationship with tech, more human, less addictive.
A full-circle moment
It’s poetic, really. Jony Ive helped design the very screen-based world we now live in: the iPhone, iPad, iMac. Now he’s helping to build the thing that might free us from those screens. That’s huge.
Will this device change everything overnight? Probably not. Will it make you question why you ever needed five apps to order a sandwich? Yes.
Elon Musk and Sam Altman are fighting like kids on the playground
By The Royal Society, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=152333860; By TechCrunch - TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2019 - Day 2, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=127902290
It feels like forever ago. The first time I tried ChatGPT, I knew it would change everything. Back in 2022, images of people had seven fingers and every other thing a chatbot spit out was nonsense. I asked Google’s Gemini for a Bible verse and it told me no because the Bible was a copyrighted work. Yikes.
The illusion of intelligence
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claims AI has already surpassed human intelligence. Is he missing the bigger picture?
1/15 teaspoon
That’s how much water your average ChatGPT question supposedly guzzles to answer you. According to Sam Altman, One query = a light sip. But multiply that by billions, and suddenly the servers need a Hydro Flask the size of Lake Michigan.
Around 70%
Of people are polite to AI. The kicker? All those “pleases” and “thank yous” are adding up and costing OpenAI tens of millions of dollars in electricity. CEO Sam Altman doesn’t think it’s a bad thing, though. Why? Just in case there’s an AI uprising someday. Plus, being nice can get you better responses.