What is an AI OS?

Here’s the token AI-generated image that doesn’t really make sense but is compulsory for all articles about AI

An operating system (OS) is the software that manages hardware and other software on a computer, and allows for communication between them¹.

Without an OS, your laptop, phone, tablet, e-reader or smartwatch is a jumble of connected devices that can’t talk to each other. The OS is fundamental to making it work.

So what is an AI² OS, and why should you care?

Here’s my definition (feel free to disagree in the comments):

An AI OS is an OS which uses AI to manage hardware and software on a computer, and to modify communication between them.

Devices which run something AI OS-like already exist (and I’ll dig into more AI OS-like things in a future piece):

• Rabbit R1 and Humane Ai Pin

• Figure robot

• Self-driving cars

Here are a few things about AI OSes, according to my definition:

1. They don’t need AI in the actual OS code

   • At least initially, existing OSes (which are highly capable) will give permissions to separately-installed AI to manage hardware and other software

   • You may roll your eyes at this: AI OSes don’t need AI in the code? But we will think of systems like these as AI OSes, even if AI is not natively integrated

2. They exist on a sliding scale, strong to weak, depending on how many permissions the OS gives to the AI to manage hardware and software

   • Weak: the OS gives few permissions

   • Strong: the OS gives many permissions

3. They imply interoperability: in other words, for (certain) permissions to be useful, the OS will need to allow hardware and other software to interoperate with the AI

You could make a case for some of the most popular AI tools being weak AI OSes:

• ChatGPT can manage a lot of (cloud-based) software through integrations

• Your phone’s AI assistant can manage other apps, to do things like set reminders or send emails

• Using the AI OS label for these examples is either:

  • Helpful: shows direction of travel

    • The browser is analogous to an OS for many of us, given the rise of software accessed through it. So ChatGPT’s ability, via integrations, to manage a lot of other software makes it OS-like

      • And once you give ChatGPT (or its underlying GPT model) more permissions outside of the browser, you get a strong AI OS — as in the example of Humane Ai Pin

    • Your AI assistant will likely gain more permissions over time and segway into a strong AI OS

  • Unhelpful: calling anything that’s not an OS an OS is confusing

Why do AI OSes matter?

I believe AI OSes are the right AI ‘thing’ to look at to understand how AI might threaten ads, and I’ll lay out why in my next piece.

Did I just read a whole article defining a single term?

Yes, you did. But the definition of an AI OS is an important building block for the AI vs. ads scenario. Anyway, it’s all over now — I’m grateful that you read this far!

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Weekly update

• 🎉 Crossed 200 subscribers! Thank you so much for thinking that my writing is worth reading. I couldn’t be more excited to keep doing weird, impactful tech activism, and to write more analysis of big tech in 2024.

• Wrote about the potential TikTok ban: tldr, it’s crazy that we don’t even have the most basic data to discuss this ban in an informed way.

• Nudgeware: Returned to a concept I created in 2016, and looked at how AI could unlock its potential.

• Challenge 1, Linknames: I’ve had an idea for a stunt that involves rickrolling and finding someone who’s a resident in Namibia. Feel free to take this as a riddle and guess what the stunt is in the comments — or watch this space!

• Challenge 2, TrojanTok: Cole is doing a pretty awesome job, racking up 1000s of For You Page views on recent @dailybreakreminder videos and getting us to 300+ followers. Amazing!

• Challenge 3, Missing Billions: pitched the campaign to a group of civil society organizations on Thursday, and feeling cautiously optimistic that a ball might start rolling.

This week’s writing

Ban TikTok? Maybe. Force them to reveal basic data? Definitely

Can AI power nudgeware?

1. I’m using a simplistic definition to not get lost in the weeds, but here’s Wikipedia’s

2. I’m using AI here as a shorthand for software that uses LLMs or other machine-learning/neural network models to process information