Robert Hart is a London-based reporter at The Verge covering all things AI and Senior Tarbell Fellow. Previously, he wrote about health, science and tech for Forbes.
London-based consumer tech startup Nothing has raised $200 million and vowed to usher in a new generation of “AI-native” devices running on operating systems that “are significantly different from the ones today.”
In a press release that reads part ode to technology and part manifesto, Nothing founder and CEO Carl Pei said the cash infusion — which values Nothing at $1.3 billion — will help the company ramp up distribution and accelerate innovation.
At the heart of Nothing’s plans is AI. Pei said the company is “building the foundations for the future” on a focused “AI OS” to deliver a “hyper-personalized experience.” However, it’s unclear if Nothing’s operating system ambitions are built on top of Android like Nothing OS. We’ve reached out for clarification.
This “AI-native platform” will run hardware in widespread use today like smartphones, headphones, and smart watches, Pei said, as well as other devices like smart glasses, electric vehicles, and humanoid robots. He confidently predicts Nothing’s new OS will run “whatever comes next,” too. That said, last October Pei just as confidently proclaimed that “AI is just a tool” and that the company’s OS should not be described as an AI operating system.
Nothing plans to release its first AI-native devices next year. Its chief challenge will be generating demand in a category that has historically failed to engage the mass market and where success has eluded even the industry’s biggest players like Apple. There’s no shortage of competitors either, including the mysterious “screen free” device former Apple designer Jony Ive is creating with OpenAI.
Nothing says it’s uniquely positioned to create these future AI devices. “Owning the last-mile distribution point with all its contextual and user knowledge is essential to developing an OS that will help people in their daily lives,” said Pei. “An AI OS that doesn’t know its user and isn’t ever-present can’t deliver a hyper-personalised experience. This is the next chapter for Nothing, integrating an AI experience into our hardware devices to reinvent how technology amplifies us.”
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