Why Tom Thinks OpenAI is Making a Home Robot

Plus, a free sneak peek at "The Girl at the Bottom of the Lake" which tells of a rift between worlds, a mysterious girl, and choices that could change everything.

Happy Friday my friends,

I got no reaction to the structure of last week’s newsletter, so I’m taking that as a positive. I’m heading off to Vegas this weekend to celebrate our 22nd wedding anniversary. For us, we remember, the 20th night of September. And we’ll be doing it by seeing Le Sserafim at the Michelob Ultra Arena in the Mandalay Bay. Although tonight, we’re headed to a sports bar to watch Clayton Kershaw’s final regular season start as a Dodger. A weekend filled with baseball and K-Pop. What could be more Tom and Eileen.

I’m also taking JSX for the flight. It’s about the same cost as Southwest, but flies out of a private hangar so instead of having to get to the airport an hour or more before your flight, they recommend you get there 20 minutes before. Apparently security is super quick too. I’ll let you know if it lives up to the promise.

OpenAI Is Making a Robot

What’s caught my eye this week is The Information’s report that OpenAI is talking to suppliers about making a smart speaker without a display. Allegedly, the company has also considered making glasses, a digital voice recorder and a wearable pin. This comes on the heels of Monday’s Wired report that OpenAI has accelerated hiring of scientists who are experts in algorithms that control robots.

The Information’s story talks about OpenAI hiring people away from Apple who worked on user interface, wearables, cameras and audio.

At first, I wondered if OpenAI might have leaked the story about smart speakers and wearables as a smoke screen. OpenAI getting into those very commoditized lines is much less exciting than robots. Not that OpenAI couldn’t wipe the floor with Amazon Echo and possibly even Google Home. But in order to hide your truly revolutionary robotic product, you may want competitors to believe you’re doing something more mundane.

Maybe. In my experience, the truth that eventually comes out of these little tidbits incorporates all of them in unexpected ways. Rumors about Apple making a phone existed alongside a touchscreen iPod. Then we got the iPhone.

So my best hot take? OpenAI is going to have a robotic smart assistant that you control with a wearable (similar to Meta’s Ray-Ban Display glasses). Maybe the wearable is glasses. It will have an intuitive control interface, excellent algorithms and of course need cameras for seeing you, and audio for talking to you and playing things back for you.

Ticks all the boxes. A little home robot assistant with ChatGPT inside.

And now a weekly excerpt!

“The Girl At The Bottom of the Lake” Excerpt

The Girl at the Bottom of the Lake is a story of hidden worlds and hidden hearts. What begins as Kel’s search for solace in the lake where his father once fished turns into something far stranger — a girl from another realm, a rift that defies explanation, and choices that will test his loyalties to friends, family, and himself.

This week, (coming Saturday morning) paying subscribers get Chapter 17.

The Envelope Room

The feeling was almost too strong to bear. He forced himself to take another step, and he was in a brightly lit room. It had white walls and a small blonde wooden table in the center. On the table were a dozen or so white envelopes. In an acrylic sign holder, scratched and beat up with age, was a printed piece of paper that read, “Take one envelope and give it to your trainer.”

Kel wasn’t sure if that was meant for him. “Trainer. . .” What was her name? “Trainer, do I take one?” But Trainer Matson didn’t answer. He decided to take an envelope.

👉 Upgrade to the paid tier to keep reading Chapter 17.

And now, your moment of Seven