Man in the image of OpenAI

It will look something like another personal device, though one devoted to the full offerings of artificial intelligence. The Wall Street Journal reports that it will be “able of being fully aware of a user’s surroundings and life” and “unobtrusive,” physically. One leak indicates the device may be worn around the neck and have camera and microphone capabilities.

In short, it’s a constant companion in the style of God — one in which the user’s life, ​​his “intimate thoughts and expressions,” are the prized input. Every consumer knows he is the real product, and as such knows his personal information is at risk implicitly anytime he is online. This time, no longer is data collection a matter of possibility, or even a negative externality: Knowing the person, and then using and preempting his experiences is the whole, explicit product. That precise mode is part of what makes it such an attempt at “creating God in our own image,” as one bizarre entrepreneur and venture capitalist has put the idea of a superintelligence.

Doing so, of course, changes the relationship we have with family and friends as much as it does with ourselves and God. The primary techno-relational concern has, for a while, stemmed from the idea of AI friendships. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has advertised as much in his platform’s chatbot-based version of a “personalization loop” that “just gets to know you better and better.” And indeed, human connection is at a deepening trough. Teenage dating is on a decline, and now AI is available to teach flirting and dating skills. That bodes poorly for an already historically low fertility rate, especially as reproduction is increasingly automated.

But these sociological concerns are of little interest to OpenAI. The problem Altman and Ive plan to solve has to do with how tethered we are to current technologies: Walking around with an iPhone “feels a lot like being jostled on a crowded street in New York, or being bombarded with notifications and flashing lights in Las Vegas,” Altman said.

The real problem, then, is the human effort built into the smartphone — which is why AGI is the idealized endpoint. Anxiety and distraction come not from the principles of “constant connection” that perpetuate these problems but from the human-catering design that requires the device to catch our attention and requires us to consider picking it up. It’s a model-based problem of the “old paradigm” of technology.

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OpenAI’s solution is a new “family of devices” made for tapping into human and artificial capacities. The business is built around an already gaping hole of human connection, and now, it explicitly reforms it. Aesthetically, Altman and Ive’s merger announcement looks something like an eerie marriage or child announcement, with the two writing they “could not be more excited” about their union. The video they made tells of a “new generation of technology that can make us our better selves.” The underlying concept, of course, is a notion of individuation separate from traditional modes of family and faith.

An all-encompassing technology such as the one Altman describes sounds nonfunctional now, but it is a growing likelihood. For society’s part, we place our hope in artificial intelligence under the vague goal of leading in the sector. It sidesteps good policy and actual cultural renewal — and without a civilization left to lead, driving AI forward won’t matter much.