Elon Musk’s SpaceX has shown investors a prototype of a “handset-like” AI device, reports The Wall Street Journal.
The prototype is reportedly sleeker and slimmer than an iPhone, making us wonder if it’s something between a small touchscreen phone and a Rabbit R1. SpaceX reportedly showed the device to investors and stakeholders before it went public, and told them it’s at an early enough stage that the design could still change.
Musk has denied the reporting, calling it “utterly false.”
SpaceX, alongside sister company Tesla, does have the manufacturing expertise to pull off mass-producing a bunch of AI devices — not to mention access to the chips needed to power any on-device compute. SpaceX has also signaled that it’s keen to expand into wireless, with Starlink Mobile as a potential competitor to Verizon and AT&T. One analyst even went as far as to speculate that T-Mobile or AT&T would make fine acquisition targets for the rocket builder, though such a purchase would, undoubtedly, be pricey.
It’s also not clear if SpaceX is just throwing spaghetti at the wall or if it will attempt to really mass produce and market such a device. But one thing that seems clearer is that if OpenAI is doing it, Musk would, perhaps, want to try to do it better.
