This week OpenAI released AVM, Advanced Voice Mode, but you already know that. This was the top story about OpenAI until most of the leadership team quit the next day, then that became the focus of the news cycle. But I'm not here to comment on that because I don't think anyone who isn't at OpenAI, and doesn't know Sam and the team, can realistically comment, what the heck do we know?
So let's talk about something I do know about, because I've been playing with it every single day since it came out - AVM. OpenAI's advanced voice mode is as good as they said it was going to be, maybe better - in short, it's insanely useful. Since it came out people have been sharing all the different ways they've been using it from tuning a guitar to using it as your personal assistant.
After using AVM and then getting in my car and needing to use Siri with Apple Carplay I realized instantly, Siri doesn't just feel outdated, it feels prehistoric in comparison. In all seriousness, the gap between Siri and OpenAI's newest models is so wide that it makes me honestly wonder if it's now actually impossible for Apple to catch up.
And here's why I think this is important. Three days ago I wrote about a hardware company that Sam Altman and Jony Ive are starting. If this hardware company ends up competing, in any way with the iPhone, then Apple could be in trouble in a market that is absolutely critical to the company.
While I'm not saying this is happening, it could happen, and I think voice is a sleeping giant that has been slept on for far too long. We live in a world today where people use a keyboard as the primary input device into their computer. I firmly believe that this week marks the beginning of the end for the keyboard, a true tipping point for voice taking over as the primary input device for computers. And yes, an iPhone is just a computer in your pocket.
If the primary input mechanism for all computing devices, i.e. your laptop, tablet, and iPhone, then the company with the best version of that new input device has a massive edge. But with AI, this edge is amplified, massively, because the company in the lead sees their lead grow exponentially, so the companies playing catch up just fall further behind.
I'd encourage you to try an experiment. Take five simple questions, things that you know Siri can answer, and ask them to ChatGPT, then ask them to Siri. Don't try to stump Siri, pick real questions it can answer. Compare the results. This is going to be a big deal. AVM changes is a lot, and quickly.