When Tony Fadell takes the stage at the inaugural MIT Future Fest, he flashes three images of once-hyped, now-discontinued AI devices. They are the Rabbit R1, the Humane Ai pin, and the Limitless pendant.
“These are kind of ‘first generation’ AI products, and because of my background, these companies called me and asked me to collaborate,” Fadel said. “I didn’t.”
It’s no wonder these companies are seeking Mr. Fadel’s advice. He is credited as the “father of the iPod,” co-inventor of the iPhone, and founder of the smart thermostat company Nest, which was acquired by Google.
“You really have to understand what you’re trying to do and what pain you’re trying to solve,” he says. “Each of these cases didn’t meet any kind of need. It was just interesting technology for geeks to be like, ‘That’s nice, but it doesn’t really apply to my life.'”
These early AI devices promised the convenience of having a personal assistant, but they didn’t really work that well. Even if they have, most people have never had an assistant and don’t know how to use or trust a personal robot helper.
“Less than 0.01% of the world’s population has ever had a human[assistant]do something, so when[companies]say, ‘Oh, I want an assistant,’ a lot of people who have assistants will say that,” he said. “Most consumers don’t even know what an assistant is.”
Fadel goes on to explain that for 99.99% of people, hiring a trusted personal assistant isn’t as easy as pulling out the most promising resume from a pile of applications.
“First, it took me a few years to figure out how best to utilize[assistants]and then entrust them with my most sensitive data, set up meetings with people, and have them be agents working with my bank,” he said. “We understand that we have this vision for the future, but there are many steps that need to be taken to get consumers and even businesses down this path.”
It’s hard to talk about your struggle to build trust in your personal assistant without sounding a little entitled, but Fadel has a point. When you hire a human assistant, you don’t teach them how to log into your bank account from day one. We are moving towards a world where everyone can have a personal AI assistant, but these tools are only valuable if we can trust them to be completely secure.
At the moment, establishing trust with an AI assistant seems even more difficult than relying on a human. Meta recently announced Muse, the company’s versatile AI assistant, but there’s reason for users to be wary. Security researchers discovered serious vulnerabilities in Muse shortly after its release. A recent 404 Media report states that some Meta employees discovered security issues and multiple teams worked overtime on a “mad dash” to fix these issues before release.
“Trust and security will be paramount in anything we hand over to any intelligence agency,” Fadel said. “The only company that I can see right now, and probably one other company, that can do this is Apple. Apple has all the hardware, all the chips, all the parts, but they don’t have all the AI capabilities.”
Even if Apple isn’t the one that ultimately produces the stickiest AI agent, Fadel predicts that successful agents will need to run only on devices, both for privacy reasons and to keep the technology lightweight.
“When I hear things like, ‘Oh, data centers are going to take over the world,’ I don’t believe it,” he says. “I’ve seen this before. I’ve seen this play out in the age of the Internet. And what do we do? We now have so much more power in our devices, so much more computing power, and yet they still run on batteries.”
By keeping sensitive data on the device rather than sending it through the cloud, Apple has gained the trust of users who share biometric data through features like Face ID. As Fadell points out, Apple seems to have a more consumer-friendly attitude than its competitors when it comes to privacy, but unlike other top technology companies, Apple doesn’t have its own world-class AI models. The new Siri AI works with a custom-built version of Google’s Gemini.
Apple may be lagging behind in its own AI, but it’s leaps and bounds ahead in hardware. Fadell theorizes that companies like Meta and OpenAI are focused on gadgets because they don’t have billions of devices in circulation like Apple does.
“That’s because they don’t have access to the sensor on your phone. They say, ‘Oh, we need video,’ and you have to confirm, ‘Yes, I’ll give you video.’ And they say, ‘Well, we need audio.’ please confirm. “Your GPS location information is required.” Please confirm. And before you know it, it’s a list of 20 or more items, more than you’ve allowed. ” he said. “So what do they do? They make a device that has all this on it, without a screen, and they just connect Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to their phone and back it up to the web or 5G network. That way they can get all the sensor data.”
Given his background in creating the iPhone and iPod, Mr. Fadel may still seem to view his former employer through rose-colored glasses. He may give Apple credit when necessary, but he hasn’t held back from criticizing Apple when he thinks it’s messed up.
When an audience member asked about the good fortune that comes with finding product-market fit, Fadell pointed out that it’s harder for startups to create that good fortune because product failure can mean the end of the company.
“As a startup, you have one shot at opportunity,” he joked. “It’s not like Apple with Vision Pro.”
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