[Viewpoint] Which Device Will AI Enter Through?

What Will Be the Next AI Device?
From Smart Glasses to AI Pins, Tech Giants Race to Set the New Standard

It is certainly not a phone with a palm-sized square screen. It could be a 'badge' that a U.S. startup plans to sell for $699 starting early next year. Glasses, watches, and necklaces are also among the candidates.

With the Chat GPT craze suddenly bringing generative artificial intelligence (AI) into our lives, discussions about what this new technology means for humanity mostly end up being vague and speculative. Even so-called experts rarely go beyond obvious warnings like "The world will change. Some jobs will disappear." Honestly admitting that "No one really knows how things will unfold yet" might be the most accurate recognition of reality at this point.

Putting those concerns aside, the question that catches my attention is this: "So, what device are we supposed to buy this time?" Compared to worrying about humanity’s uncontrollable future, the likelihood that our food or investment opportunities lie within this question and its answer is definitely higher.

I wasn’t very surprised when Mark Zuckerberg of Meta recently introduced smart glasses, a product Google had failed with. But a few days later, the 'AI Pin' worn on the collars of models at a Paris fashion show by Humane, a U.S. AI startup, was much more impressive. In the released video, the words of the person wearing this device on their chest are translated in real time and delivered to the other party in their own voice. When you pick up an item in the market and ask for information, a small screenless assistant hanging on the collar responds. When you open your palm in front of it, light shines like a beam projector, displaying information.

A personal AI device that allows you to explore information without taking out your smartphone by utilizing an image sensor and ChatGPT (Photo by Humane website)

It can project key information onto the palm or other surfaces like a beam projector. (Photo by Humane)

If you believe the prediction that the disruptive power of generative AI will surpass the moment of the iPhone’s debut in 2007 and reach the level of internet penetration, you can gauge the intensity of the fierce competition among big tech companies to develop standard devices. Brad Stone, the author who chronicled Amazon’s growth, recently wrote in Bloomberg that "generative AI services will soon create a new kind of hardware and completely change the way humans and computers interact."

Of course, there are skeptical views as well. Some predict that AI will be confined to entering current smartphones. This is because picking up a smartphone is not very difficult and it can do much more than a small voice-recognition device. If this continues, the battle will likely be less about hardware and more about who can develop better-trained generative AI independently.

Apple is reportedly planning to equip its iPhone 16, to be unveiled in the second half of next year, with its own generative AI, and Samsung Electronics has also decided to apply its own AI Gauss to the Galaxy S24, scheduled for release next year. If Gauss works satisfactorily, there will be no need to borrow Google’s Gemini, and Samsung can overcome its past dependence on Android to lead a new paradigm.

Hardware or software, smartphone upgrade or civilization-changing device. The future is uncertain, but it is clear that the fate of our tech industry depends on this. The AI era is approaching us with infinite opportunities, both fascinating and frightening.