What will come after the smartphone? That’s the riddle that, right now, so many tech startuppers and big companies alike are trying to crack.
If we’d like to be realistic, we all know the answer is probably “yet another smartphone, but smarter, faster, more powerful, with lots of AI in it”.
Unfortunately, the rise of stochastic parrots, also known as large language models, has convinced a new ilk of young tech entrepreneurs that they can and will be the next Steve Jobs. They believe that by repackaging intangible generative AI models into hardware shells and sprinkling some magic marketing powder on top, they could be singlehandedly responsible for the new invention of the century.
It’s a novel mix of naivete and disingenuousness, even by Silicon Valley standards. The most fascinating aspect of this new wave of AI hardware is that the startups making them all try to convince us of the need for a new single-purpose device to break away from our smartphones. As if we didn't like our smartphones! Or maybe these new-generation startuppers are too young to notice that the fundamental and utter advantage of the smartphone is the ability to do so many things in one. Including running apps that would be more effective than any of these devices in achieving their fundamental functions.