Welcome John Ternus to your new role as CEO. Your first priority: reverse the brain drain.

OpenAI says roughly 400 Apple employees have moved from Apple to OpenAI.

AI is moving much faster than the smartphone era did. The biggest long-term risk for Apple is losing control of the interface between consumers and AI.

Given Apple can lean on Google’s models, it’s unlikely that OpenAI can create an AI-powered consumer device family that compels consumers to switch because it’s 10x better than Apple.

It’s easy for OpenAI to design one or two consumer devices. The difficult part is designing, manufacturing, and distributing a family of devices and services (iPhone, Mac, Watch, AirPods, Apple TV) at a price point that consumers can afford. Remember, OpenAI has to come out with an offer so powerful that Apple users would want to shift away from their current investment in Apple devices. That’s an enormously high hurdle.

Source: Gene Munster