OpenAI buys smartphone camera maker Glass Imaging for $300M

mmyth_drannon about 2 hours ago 27 commentsRead Article on techcrunch.com

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Discussion (27 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

fidotron•about 1 hour ago

Both Apple and Google have dropped the ball enough with the state of recent releases that some iPhone-equivalent-disruption product from the AI industry is becoming conceivable, though I would be surprised if it turns out not to be running Android in some form.

Putting a lot of effort into pushing complexity into software to reduce manufacturing complexity is precisely the sort of thing you worry about when you're getting serious about building consumer products.

giancarlostoro•about 1 hour ago

> though I would be surprised if it turns out not to be running Android in some form.

Just yesterday I saw a post I cant recall if on here or reddit, someone coded an entire OS with Claude Code, I would not be surprised if they invest AI compute at building an OS themselves, though I'd never buy a phone from these companies.

The person got it running on bare hardware.

Found it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1wfpydl/i_asked_c...

dktp•20 minutes ago

The issue is getting developers to create apps for a new OS nobody uses (yet). And nobody will use it if they can't have their banking app and uber on it

This becomes even tougher if they go the Apple route and don't allow other phone manufacturers to use their OS. Alternatively, if they go down the Windows Phone route, we saw how that played out considering that Google _pays_ manufacturers to use Android

Making OS is very hard, but getting necessary adoption is likely even harder

fidotron•41 minutes ago

Android has a huge amount of battle tested stuff for running things like media codecs and GPUs connected to devices that are not rebooted for months on end by normal people. (The iPhone wasn't an entirely new OS either for a good reason).

The whole vibe coding an OS might become a thing in the next few years, but you still have to QA and test it, and there simply hasn't actually been enough time for that.

ssivark•20 minutes ago

The time is ripening to disrupt Android/iOS. The place to start would be to rethink the device around AI. No need for apps or messy integrations with third-party crap. Just a simple device with a great new UX (not typing on a touchpad!) that is slick and does a few things very well (personal agent, coordinating with your personal knowledge base, handling external communications and your interface with the world). This could very easily supplant a phone.

AI is rapidly getting to such a place where the you don't really need a developer ecosystem to get your device off the ground. As "plugins" into your agent at some later point -- sure, why not.

walrus01•42 minutes ago

I wonder if it might be some totally clean sheet of paper OS design but also capable of running Android applications in an emulation/virtualization layer. I think they know that any mass market handheld smartphone consumer device isn't going to succeed (windows phone) unless people can easily install all available apps from either the google play store or apple app store.

fidotron•36 minutes ago

App store inertia has to be the decisive roadblock, and yeah, there would need to be some workaround.

This could also be where China gets another win because of their de-Googled Android-not-Android ecosystem which would enable more competition in their local market than can be achieved elsewhere.

deaton•22 minutes ago

But honestly, why do that when there's already a good, open-source(ish), well-designed, highly secure operating system platform that already runs Android apps? Any new clean sheet OS is either going to be worse than Android on one or more of these dimensions, or it will be absurdly expensive to vibe code.

iAMkenough•about 1 hour ago

AI cameras won’t be accepted with open arms like the iPhone was 20 years ago. Might as well buy an Android if it’s an Android.

For the mass market, the AI industry has a trust problem.

fidotron•about 1 hour ago

This is like people that think FB is going under because they don't use it.

ChatGPT is _enormous_. It doesn't matter if you don't trust it, half the planet does. They don't need to get the HN bubble on board.

Edit to add: the absolute state of the replies to this. Hilarious.

ungovernableCat•22 minutes ago

I mean by your own logic you can say you're doing the same thing. You think smartphones will get disrupted because you're bored by the mature form factor.

I don't see that happening unless the new hardware and the way people interact with it is truly "magical" in some sense. Smartphones as a mature device category have so many things going for them that anything new will likely come as a complement for them (which apple can capitalise on) vs a complete replacement.

rtyy•44 minutes ago

You’re boosting too hard bro

iAMkenough•41 minutes ago

Cope harder. How’s the Rabbit doing?

Only the HN bubble is interested in a new publicly subsidized AI phone option, over the AI phone already in their pocket at least.

Edit: what is this, Reddit?

HelloUsername•about 2 hours ago

Source posted earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49701716

tantalor•about 1 hour ago

That's an odd choice. I would have thought camera modules are commodity parts (have been for a long time) and there's not much margin there.

Probably they are buying the staff, not the technology.

rvz•2 minutes ago

This means that software is done.

Hardware is the next thing which is far more valuable IP and with its staff.

dolmen•about 1 hour ago

I'm just discovering Glass Imaging (a bit difficult as their website seems overloaded), but it seems they are in software solutions, not a hardware manufacturer or designer.

elil17•about 1 hour ago

Glass Imaging focuses on AI enhancement of photos (in a way that's informed by/correcting for camera hardware defects)

HarHarVeryFunny•about 1 hour ago

The article tells you right there in the 2nd paragraph what the AI connection is, and why OpenAI are presumably buying them.

s0ss•about 2 hours ago

The bubble expands to meet the needs of the expanding bubble.

Forgeties79•about 1 hour ago

it really does seem like they’re just buying stuff up in the hopes that something accidentally turns into a profit to cover their previous investments/promises. Kind of a ponzi of acquisitions

r_lee•about 1 hour ago

the Jony Ive one is really interesting. it was kind of this whole "let's change the world" teaser and then we've heard literally nothing since.

dgellow•about 1 hour ago

Definitely changed Ive’s world with that massive paycheck!

maz1b•about 1 hour ago

OpenAI really going after ex Apple people who start new companies or startups, eh? First Ive and now the duo behind Portrait mode.

Will be interesting to see how the legal battle plays out as well.