The company that made ChatGPT, OpenAI, recently revealed that it had purchased Multi, a startup, suggesting that its AI systems may soon have access to some extremely potent new features. With features like shared cursors and simultaneous screensharing with up to ten users, Multi is a powerful screensharing and collaboration tool designed with software engineering teams in mind.
However, after making the following announcement on their blog, the startup is closing as part of OpenAI’s acquisition:
“What if desktop computers were inherently multiplayer? What if the operating system placed people on equal footing to apps? Those were the questions we explored in building Multi, and before that, Remotion. Recently, we’ve been increasingly asking ourselves how we should work with computers. Not on or using computers, but truly with computers. With AI. We believe it’s one of the most important product questions of our time.”
That is undoubtedly a contentious stance, particularly when it comes to the claim that PCs are “inherently multiplayer.”
Since then, rumors regarding the potential integration of Multi functionalities into ChatGPT AI systems have been spreading through X (previously Twitter).
A user who was a student developer made the assumption that the ChatGPT desktop program, which was released earlier this year for Mac, might get the remote administration and collaboration features. That would make it possible for programs like ChatGPT to “edit code” or “draw on your screen” in place of you.
While some people were thrilled by the concept, it makes sense that others voiced some reservations due to security or privacy issues with allowing an AI system to take control of your computer.
Microsoft and Apple, with their respective Recall function in Copilot+ PCs and Apple Intelligence in Apple Silicon Macs, are starting to address the issue of embedding AI systems more deeply into PCs through the OS system.
Nonetheless, it makes reasonable that OpenAI would start investigating this field on its own. Could Multi enable AI to break free from the app’s limitations and take control of your PC independently? Undoubtedly, the acquisition transfers a crucial technological component that may enable it.
