OpenAI needs the ChatGPT smartphone even if it’s doomed to fail

Even if AI were as good as OpenAI would like you to believe, there’s no way a voice assistant could replace those essential features, enabled by apps and displays. What’s even worse is that AI is not even remotely close to keeping up with the promises we’ve been fed over the last few years.

I’d use a chatbot to research new topics, vibe code a small app, or generate some images to joke with friends. However, no AI service is still capable of hailing a taxi or using an app reliably and fast enough for me to consider such features more than a gimmick.

Gimmicks won’t turn smartphones into legacy devices, and even if AI starts improving surprisingly fast today, it would take it a very long time to reach the utility of a smartphone.

OpenAI does need to make a smartphone  

Putting our beliefs about the future of AI aside, let’s just assume that’s really the technology of the future. Even if that’s the case, it is essential for OpenAI to start producing its own hardware to deliver the full potential of that technology and reach users.

The only way ChatGPT could replace your smartphone is to somehow get access to as much data about you, your life, and your surroundings as possible. No smart pendant, AI pin, or any other accessory can gather all that data, but our smartphones already have it.

In the current environment, that’s a roadblock for OpenAI, because it doesn’t have access to the data our phones are gathering. Apple and Google don’t allow such access to anyone, and they are certainly not going to allow it anytime soon.

That leaves OpenAI with only one solution to its existential problem—to make its own smartphone. Building the ChatGPT phone is the only way for the company to get the data and access, which would allow it to make its own accessories with far-reaching and useful features.

The ChatGPT phone is doomed because phones are good already 

However, breaking into the smartphone market is not an easy feat, and it’s almost certain that OpenAI will fail at it. The only way to dethrone the iPhone and the Galaxy is to offer something better, which the ChatGPT phone won’t do.

Chatting with AI is fun, but Android and iOS phones can already do that, and you can even switch between models depending on your taste, needs, and their development. The rest of the promised features are not even remotely here, and the real ones are certainly not revolutionary.

OpenAI’s rumored idea for an agent-based smartphone is practically impossible today, meaning it won’t be able to deliver the necessary paradigm shift. Since the ChatGPT phone is based on a compromised idea, we’re much more likely to see a device similar to the Facebook phone than an iPhone killer.

What the ChatGPT phone could do is to push the boundaries of AI and smartphones and give ideas to Apple, Samsung, and the rest of the market. The result could be better agentic AI on the iPhone, which won’t necessarily benefit OpenAI, but it could plant the seed of a paradigm shift.

At the end of the day, I’m glad that OpenAI is willing to try something new and different, even if I believe it won’t be a successful product. I'd still love to try the phone, use it to the limit of its capabilities, and see how those make the current phones even better.