I’m reading these quotes from the articles about OpenAI buying Jony Ive’s company, and promising to deliver something in the future:

“the chance to do the biggest thing we’ve ever done as a company here,”

 

Altman suggested the $6.5 billion acquisition has the potential to add $1 trillion in value to OpenAI, according to a recording reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

 

The product will be capable of being fully aware of a user’s surroundings and life, will be unobtrusive, able to rest in one’s pocket or on one’s desk, and will be a third core device a person would put on a desk after a MacBook Pro and an iPhone.

Altman told OpenAI staff that stealth will be important for their ultimate success to avoid competitors’ copying the product before it is ready.

 

Altman said, predicting that OpenAI would ship that large quantity of high-quality devices “faster than any company has ever shipped 100 million of something new before.”

I remember at least two companies recently that were hyping their products in a similar fashion before release, while maintaining a secrecy — Humane and Magic Leap. Both products failed spectacularly. I don’t know if there’s a lesson there for Sam Altman and Jony Ive (after all, they have billions of dollars and I don’t), but I’d be very cautious of overhyping things and raising expectations. The fall can be quite painful.