How Will We Interface with an AGI?

The timing wasn’t a coincidence.

On May 21, 2025, OpenAI acquired IO Products for $6.5 billion.

IO Products is the startup founded by Jony Ive – Apple’s former chief design officer responsible for the design of some of the most iconic consumer electronics products in history, like the iPhone, the iPod, the MacBook, the iPad, and the most successful-selling watch in history… the Apple Watch.

IO Products hasn’t released a single product since its founding in 2023. And there’s no indication it’s generated any revenue…

So it’s easy to glance at an acquisition like that and wince, thinking, “That’s crazy, they waaay overpaid – it’s nothing but a bubble.”

We explored OpenAI’s strategic move in yesterday’s Bleeding Edge – A Funeral? A Wedding? Or Both?

And it would be a huge mistake to dismiss these developments.

Better yet, about the smartest thing that we can do is lean in, dig deeper, and do our best to understand what’s going on.

The Vicious Race to Own It

Yes, the purpose of the acquisition is to make new consumer electronics devices for the age of AI. That’s the headline story, of course.

But what everyone is missing is the vicious, competitive race happening behind the scenes… not only to be first, but to own the interface – the user interface of artificial intelligence (AI), that is.

We can’t make the mistake of anchoring our framework for how to think about technology to the way we do things today.

Agentic AI and, very soon, artificial general intelligence (AGI) will require a radically different framework to view how these technologies work and how we’ll interact with them.

Just think about it. Imagine conversing with your own personalized agentic AI…

You verbally tell it what tasks you want it to complete for the day. And you’ve already trained it on how to read, review, and respond to any emails you receive.

And when it’s not sure about how to handle an inquiry, your AI speaks up and asks for your direction.

In that world, do you think we need to use a keyboard throughout the day?

In that world, do you think we need to spend hours hunched over our smartphones or laptops, pecking away?

The products we use continuously today will no longer make sense in a world powered by AGI.

If that doesn’t make your brain hurt a little bit, this next part will…

They Will Be Everywhere

These technologies I’ve just described exist today.

They are in the process of being commercialized.

They will be everywhere 12 months from now. Everywhere.

We won’t know how we got by without them.

This is what industry insiders deeply understand. This is why they are frantically raising and spending as much money as they can put to purposeful use. Every minute is important. Every day, they’re behind.

OpenAI is behind. Have you heard that from anyone? I’m telling you now that it’s true.

Not only did Google catch up with – and in some ways overtake – OpenAI with its Gemini AI models…

xAI came out of nowhere with a differentiated software architecture that overtook everyone, went straight to the top of the charts, and is demonstrably improving every single week.

And right now, the software development is leading the hardware.

And everyone is behind on hardware development for AI.

Consider this: Google and its Android operating system (OS) have about a 74% global market share of the smartphone market. Apple has just 22%.

And we know how Google leverages its dominant position…

Google collects all sorts of consumer data from Android OS smartphones around the world – along with data from the use of its free products like Google Search, Waze, Gmail, etc. – and monetizes that data by selling access to advertisers.

But AI is changing consumer behaviors. Google’s dominance in online search dropped below 90% in Q4 2024 – something that hasn’t happened since 2015.

So the real battle is this…

Who will dominate the new user interface for artificial intelligence? That interface will be worth trillions of dollars, as it will have direct access to consumers and everything that they, and their AI agents, do throughout the day.

And that’s worth a fortune.

OpenAI thinks its solution lies with IO Products, and the brain behind Apple’s consumer product design…

But it should come as no surprise at all to hear that Google has a counter solution…

Android OS… on Repeat

Google has been pounding away developing Android XR – XR standing for extended reality.

But the new killer consumer product isn’t about just having augmented reality glasses – it’s about having intelligent, AI-powered AR glasses… a radically new user interface for a world of agentic AI and AGI.

And just like Google did with Android OS for smartphones, it’s doing the same thing for this new user interface with Android XR.

I explored Google’s Android strategy right here in Outer Limits – Who Will Be the New Data Gatekeepers? It’s worth a read to truly understand Google’s modus operandi, but for those limited on time, here’s the critical part:

Google spent billions on research and development to create a smartphone operating system.

And then, it gave it away for free to smartphone manufacturers.

Google maintains and updates the Android OS throughout the year with improvements and bug fixes. And it doesn’t cost the smartphone manufacturers a thing.

For smartphone manufacturers – faced with the decision to incur massive expenses to write their own operating system and maintain it, or just take Google’s Android OS – it was an easy decision.

Google’s strategy was to become the path of least resistance when it came to a mobile operating system. And it worked, resulting in a 95% global market share for mobile search engines and about 70% of the world’s smartphone operating system market.

This is why I always chuckle when someone says that Apple is a monopoly.

In order to get Google’s Android operating system (OS), the manufacturers only had to agree to two key terms. Google would be the default search engine. And Google could collect data from the phones. That was clearly an acceptable deal.

Google wants to give Android XR to as many hardware companies as possible, in an effort to replicate its dominance in smartphones.

So it begins…

The “Glasses” Interface

Last week, augmented reality (AR) company Xreal announced its Project Aura, which runs Google’s Android XR software, which is now integrated with Gemini AI – Google’s foundational AI model.

Xreal Project Aura Glasses | Source: Xreal

And previously announced, Samsung will be releasing its new XR headset, Project Moohan, also powered by Android XR software… and in the next couple of years, more than a hundred other hardware companies will follow.

And Google will do exactly what it did with smartphones. It will have its own branded versions.

The goal isn’t to dominate in market share. It’s simply to show other manufacturers what a fully integrated software/hardware solution should look like.

To that end, Google announced that it’s partnering with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster eyewear companies to make stylish XR glasses, powered by Android XR.

This should sound familiar, right? We’ve explored these ideas before.

After all, Meta partnered with Ray-Ban to imbue its own artificial intelligence XR operating system onto these popular consumer products.

Ray-Ban Meta Skyler AI Glasses | Source: Ray-Ban

It makes perfect sense after all.

Meta has long been relegated to just apps (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) running on Google’s Android OS on smartphones. There was no way Meta was ever going to gain the position of being a major operating platform for smartphones. It was way too late.

But not now. Not in this race to a new interface for AI.

Sadly, Apple is too far behind in this race. All it has to show is the Apple Vision Pro – launched in June 2023 and covered here – which is still a clunky virtual reality headset that will never make it to the consumer mass market.

Apple Vision Pro | Source: Apple

But the even bigger problem is that Apple has no solution for its AI.

The Leaders & the Laggards

The Apple Vision Pro is void of any “intelligence…”

And the company appears directionless when it comes to a future strategy of developing an AGI and incorporating AI into its products, let alone developing a new user interface for AI.

OpenAI’s acquisition of IO Products and Jony Ive must have been an “uh oh” moment for Apple management. Ive’s design sense and talent are at least half of the solution that Apple needed right now.

Now, Ive and Altman will be leaning full tilt, with a bottomless pit of money and no pressure from Wall Street, because OpenAI is still a private company.

So no, OpenAI’s deal to scoop up IO Products wasn’t a coincidence. It’s a frantic and frenetic move to become the new Google in a world of agentic AI and AGI-powered consumer electronics devices. So really, there was no price tag too rich, either.

Meta (META), Google (GOOGL), and now OpenAI are all-in on the race…

And I can’t help but wonder what xAI is thinking right now.  I know they are up to something.

Fortunately, with his status as a special government employee coming to a well-planned close, Elon Musk can now lean in full tilt and get back to the business of building revolutionary products.

I am certain that xAI and its AGI will be his top priority.

Jeff