Carl Pei, Nothing’s co-founder and CEO, envisions a future beyond the iPhone. The iPhone is a device that does not run apps, but rather is powered by an AI agent.
“I think in terms of AI in software, people need to understand that apps are going to disappear,” said Pei, a consumer electronics brand that makes unique smartphones and other accessories. “So if you’re a founder or a startup and your app is like where your core values are, you’re going to get confused whether you like it or not.”
Fay made the remarks Wednesday in an interview at the SXSW conference in Austin.
The founders have previously talked about AI-first devices. That vision helped the company close a $200 million Series C funding round last year. At the time, Nothing was pitching the idea of a new kind of smartphone that would use AI and personalization technology so precise that users wouldn’t feel the need to go behind the AI and double-check its results.
At SXSW, Pei expanded on his vision for AI-first devices and the steps needed to achieve them.
The first step, currently being tested by some companies, is AI capabilities that can execute commands on behalf of users, such as booking flights or hotels. But Pei dismissed this step as “very tedious.”
The next step is where things get more interesting as AI begins to learn the user’s intent over the long term. For example, if you want to become healthier, the device could give you a nudge to help you achieve your goal.
Comparing this concept to ChatGPT’s memory feature, Pei explained, “I think it becomes much more powerful when suggestions start showing up. We don’t have to come up with ideas manually. If the system knows us so well, it will come up with things we didn’t even want to do.”
Describing the AI-first smartphone, Pei said it will be a device that can perform tasks for the user without having to give commands.
“The way we use phones now is very old-fashioned. It was before the iPhone. Back then, we had Palm Pilots and PDAs. And if you think about the user experience, it’s still very similar,” Pei said. “You have a lock screen, a home screen, and apps. You browse through different apps. Each app is like a full screen. There’s a sort of app store where you can download more apps. So it hasn’t changed at all in the last 20 years.”
This frustrated him because while the technology consumers were using had advanced significantly, the products we were using had not. Even simple tasks require multiple steps, he explained.
“It’s very difficult to get things done over the phone,” Pei said. “Let’s say we want to have coffee. That’s the intention. But executing that intention requires a lot of different steps and a lot of different apps. If you want to have coffee with someone, you’re going to need four apps: a messaging app, Maps, Uber, and Calendar.”
He continued, “I think the future of smartphones and operating systems should be ‘I know you very well, and if I know your intentions, I’ll just do it for you’ without having to manually go through every app.”
“We need to do this through AI,” he said.
This also means that the devices will not be focused on apps that humans can navigate, but will instead have an interface that features an interface designed for use by AI agents.
That doesn’t mean the app will disappear in the near term, Pei cautioned. Nothing’s own operating system even allows users today to code their own mini apps. But ultimately, AI should be able to use “apps” in a frictionless way, without trying to mimic human touch on a smartphone by navigating menus and tapping options.
“That’s not the future. The future is not agents using human interfaces. We need to create interfaces for agents to use. I think that’s a more forward-looking way,” Pei said.
