OpenAI’s new trademark application hints at humanoid robots, smart jewelry, and more

Final Friday, AI startup OpenAI filed a brand new software to trademark merchandise related to its model — “OpenAI” — with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Workplace (USPTO). Usually, this wouldn’t be newsworthy. Firms file for emblems on a regular basis. However within the software, OpenAI hints at new product strains each nearer-term and of a extra speculative nature.

For instance, the submitting lists {hardware} together with headphones, goggles, glasses, remotes, laptop computer and telephone circumstances, smartwatches, sensible jewellery, and digital and augmented actuality headsets “for AI-assisted interplay, simulation, and coaching.”

OpenAI final 12 months confirmed that it was working with former Apple designer Jony Ive on a {hardware} undertaking, and the startup’s CEO, Sam Altman, on Sunday informed Korean outlet The Elect that OpenAI hopes to develop AI-powered shopper {hardware} “via partnerships with a number of corporations.” However in that very same interview, Altman cautioned that it’d take “a number of years” to finish even a prototype AI gadget.

OpenAI’s trademark software additionally mentions robots — particularly “user-programmable humanoid robots” and “humanoid robots having communication and studying capabilities for aiding and entertaining folks.”

OpenAI lately started hiring for a brand new robotics group led by Caitlin Kalinowski, who joined the startup to steer {hardware} final November from Meta’s AR glasses division. Based on job listings and reporting from The Data, OpenAI is trying to check robots — probably humanoid in kind — powered by customized sensors and AI that may function with human-like intelligence in real-world settings.

Additional down in its submitting, OpenAI makes references to customized AI chips and providers for “leveraging quantum computing assets to optimize AI mannequin efficiency.”

It’s lengthy been rumored that OpenAI is creating customized chips to run its AI fashions. The corporate has a division targeted on co-designing chip parts, and experiences counsel OpenAI goals to deliver a customized chip to market with semiconductor producers Broadcom and TSMC as early as 2026.

OpenAI’s plans for quantum computing — assuming it has any set in stone — are murkier. However final 12 months, the startup added a former quantum programs architect at quantum computing startup PsiQuantum to its technical group.

As The Register famous in a bit from March, quantum computing has the potential to drastically enhance the effectivity of coaching AI fashions because of its capacity to carry out huge numbers of calculations concurrently. With the computing prices of AI displaying no indicators of coming down anytime quickly, maybe OpenAI sees a future in coaching fashions on {hardware} far architecturally completely different than the machines on which it depends right now.