Imran Chaudhri, the creative genius behind some of Apple’s most iconic products, has given us a glimpse into a future where Artificial Intelligence (AI) is ubiquitous, and technology is virtually invisible. As the keynote speaker at TED2023, Chaudhri offered an exclusive preview of groundbreaking, unreleased technology that is set to redefine our interaction with technology and the world around us.
Chaudhri, an industry veteran who spent more than 20 years at Apple, is widely recognized for his innovative contributions to the design of products like the Macintosh, iPod, iPad, and Apple Watch. His most notable achievement was developing the user interface and interactions on the iPhone, a device that transformed the way we communicate and interact with technology.
In 2018, Chaudhri and fellow Apple alum, Bethany Bongiorno, co-founded Humane, a company focused on using AI to reshape the role of technology in our lives. Their mission is to create a more intuitive, screenless, and seamless interaction between humans and technology, ushering in what Chaudhri refers to as the “intelligence age”.
In his TED Talk, Chaudhri teased Humane’s first device, set to be unveiled later in 2023. It’s an AI-driven wearable technology that is built to be standalone, not requiring a smartphone or any other device to pair with it. The device is designed to interact with the world in the same way a human does, seeing what you see and hearing what you hear. It prioritizes privacy and fades into the background of your life, offering a new definition of a user-friendly device.
Chaudhri demonstrated the device’s revolutionary capabilities, including its ability to translate languages in the user’s own voice and emotion. He also showed how it can provide contextually aware responses, offer health advice based on user’s health conditions, and even surface important notifications from a user’s calendar and emails.
The wearable device, Chaudhri asserts, is built on the belief that the future of technology is not on our faces or in our hands, but in the invisible interactions around us. He envisions a future where AI is ubiquitous, a world where technology enhances our ability to be present and engaged in our surroundings.
Chaudhri’s vision is not only to make technology more intuitive and human-centric but also to make it almost invisible. As he concluded his talk, he stated, “The future of technology might almost be invisible.”
As we eagerly anticipate the unveiling of Humane’s first AI-driven device, Chaudhri’s TED Talk serves as a stark reminder of the untapped potential of AI. It opens the door to an entirely new realm of possibilities, reimagining the human-technology relationship as we know it. The future, as Chaudhri sees it, is not just about devices getting smaller or more powerful but about technology becoming so seamlessly integrated into our lives that it virtually disappears.
