Exclusive insights from Tony Fadell on ChatGPT and the AI gold rush

What’s going to matter in the future is AI – not the metaverse – says Tony Fadell, principal at investment firm Build Collective.

“Just like I lived through the internet revolution, the smartphone revolution, we’re going to live through this AI 1.0 revolution, and it’s going to be a tremendous upheaval,” says Fadell. “Most smartphone brands and internet 1.0 things don’t exist anymore. There’s going to be a lot of things that don’t exist anymore as we get through this first AI wave.”

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Having gone through three economic downturns in his life, Fadell says these are the times “when great stuff happens.” AI is going to push every business to think creatively, as new companies will be created, he adds.

Fadell is often referred to as the “father of the iPod” and co-invented the first three generations of the iPhone. After his time at Apple, he went on to create Nest, which was acquired by Google for US$3.2 billion in 2014.

While he has now stepped into the role of an investor in global tech startups, that hasn’t stopped him from building products. Last December, France-based digital assets security firm Ledger partnered with Fadell to create a crypto hardware wallet.

He also released a book called Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making in May 2022, which draws on his over 30 years of experience to guide people on how to build different things – from a career to a company.

In an exclusive interview with Tech in Asia, Fadell talks about building products for Southeast Asia, which stems from his experience living in Indonesia. He also discusses Build Collective’s plans in the region and his views on blockchain and generative AI.

Embedded AI is the future

“If you’re not looking at generative AI, then you are going to get whomped over the head with it by your competition or a new startup,” says Fadell. “What we’re seeing with ChatGPT is something that is a great feature for other products and not necessarily a great product in and of itself.”

AI can improve your email, browser, smartphone, and more, he says. While it’s not going to replace a lot of things, it will be embedded into many products, the investor adds.

Too many people chase the money and what’s hot.

As an example of how AI could supplant certain areas in smartphones, Fadell gave Tech in Asia a glimpse of a prototype of a wearable headset that he worked on five years ago, where the user can talk to an AI like in the movie Her.

Companies in verticals such as health, legal, and accounting – where people require expert knowledge and can use AI-first user interfaces – “will win,” Fadell believes.

That said, he thinks that while AI is a gold rush now, this doesn’t mean that companies are going to become successful because of it. “Too many people chase the money and what’s hot.”

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