OpenAI Buys Sky to Bring Full Computer Control to AI  ## Metadata - Author: [[Hard Fork AI]] - Full Title: OpenAI Buys Sky to Bring Full Computer Control to AI - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/f8e30ff7-990f-4c1f-acd0-5179e1fa39e0 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Desktop-Level AI Enables Deeper Integrations** - OpenAI acquired Sky to let AI take direct control of desktop apps and OS-level features on Macs. - This goes beyond browser-based agents like Atlas by accessing calendars, files, screenshots, and native apps. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer So OpenAI put out a big blog post detailing, essentially, what they were doing here. Notably, I don't know if this is on purpose, but in all their blog posts, they always have mdashes, which makes you feel like they use chat to do to write them. But you know, that's probably irrelevant. This is what the opening statement of the blog post said. Then I'll get into the acquisition of it. They said, AI progress isn't only about advancing intelligence. It's about unlocking it through interfaces that understand context, adapt to your intent, and work seamlessly. That's why we're excited to share that OpenAI has acquired, you know, Sky, basically. You know, it's called Software Applications Incorporated, very generic, but it's basically the company that makes Sky. They say Sky is a powerful natural language interface for Mac with Sky. AI works alongside you, whether you're writing, planning, coding, or managing your day. Okay. So for people watching over on YouTube, I will, or Spotify, I'll show like a little demo of basically what the the platform is capable of doing they released a video which is interesting Because this video came out about four months ago it has 10,000 views so it's got some decent views only has 32 comments and so those views could have just been from running an ad on this They say it's an AI that gets things done on your Mac. They only have 200 subscribers. So like this is feels like a very undercover company. It doesn't have a lot of social media footprint doesn't have a lot of, you know, big fans. Anyways, they released this demo video, which is basically they show on Mac, iMessage is open. And they show someone taking a screenshot of the iMessage uploading it to this little bubble that sits on the side of your Mac. And they say, you know, based off of the screenshot, they're like, add dinner at Mojoto at eight o'clock to my calendar. So they're telling it to do something. Now, what's interesting about this in particular, if you read the comments on this, because then, you know, the little Sky AI thing goes and does that. It's very much like the chat GPT on the side of Atlas, where you tell it to do something that takes control of your screen and it can go and accomplish tasks. So it feels very similar to that. In this case, I think it natively interfaces with a lot of like Apple products, like their calendar. It then says, you know, like, go research like a bar to go get drinks at. And it's like going and doing research on Google Maps. ([Time 0:01:31](https://share.snipd.com/snip/a6eb0862-2533-400d-80ad-4eb82dd7b8e9)) - **Watching AI Perform Desktop Tasks Feels Like Babysitting** - Jaeden describes a Sky demo that takes a screenshot, researches locations, updates calendars, and messages group chats for you. - He compares watching Sky perform tasks to babysitting Atlas in the Atlas browser demo. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer It doesn't have a lot of social media footprint doesn't have a lot of, you know, big fans. Anyways, they released this demo video, which is basically they show on Mac, iMessage is open. And they show someone taking a screenshot of the iMessage uploading it to this little bubble that sits on the side of your Mac. And they say, you know, based off of the screenshot, they're like, add dinner at Mojoto at eight o'clock to my calendar. So they're telling it to do something. Now, what's interesting about this in particular, if you read the comments on this, because then, you know, the little Sky AI thing goes and does that. It's very much like the chat GPT on the side of Atlas, where you tell it to do something that takes control of your screen and it can go and accomplish tasks. So it feels very similar to that. In this case, I think it natively interfaces with a lot of like Apple products, like their calendar. It then says, you know, like, go research like a bar to go get drinks at. And it's like going and doing research on Google Maps. And then it's like, and then message the people in the group. So then it messages back to the group chat to go do it. Again, it feels like you're sitting there watching. You're sitting there like actually watching it and then telling it what to do, which I don't really get what the point of that is really other than just doing it yourself. It's kind of reminds me of how on OpenAI's Atlas browser, you almost have to babysit it. ([Time 0:02:51](https://share.snipd.com/snip/2c102855-adbf-494b-b04c-465de7db31c0)) - **OS-Level Control Changes What AI Can Access** - Controlling a full computer gives AI access to private, native resources browsers can't reach reliably. - That access enables richer automations but raises higher privacy and permission considerations. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer The difference here, and I do think this is valuable, is it actually takes control of your computer. And I think Microsoft has a really good opportunity to do this with all of their co-pilot features and tools because they own the operating system, the Windows operating system, so They can get AI to work on the computer level. I think OpenAI wants a little piece of that, obviously, without their own hardware, their own operating system. They're kind of like at the mercy of whether or not they can get their software in front of people. So I think this is an interesting way where they can actually take control of the computer. Now, why is that important? Because you can access the photos, you can access the calendar, you can access all of these native apps on the computer that you might not have permission for. The files on the computer you can access and at least screenshots and stuff. So you don't always have access to that in the browser using something like Atlas. So it's kind of like another level. ([Time 0:06:32](https://share.snipd.com/snip/5d68b659-21be-4ad7-bbea-203ede7ae62a)) - **Underdog Startup With High-Profile Backing** - Sky hadn't publicly launched and had minimal visibility despite prior funding of $6.5M. - Sam Altman and other notable figures were investors, making the acquisition notable beyond product readiness. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer So I do think that that is very interesting. The Sky founders, I will say, they've had a bunch of exits in the past. Weinstein and Conrad previously co-founded Workflow, which sold to Apple. So if they sold a company to Apple, they went and worked at Apple after that happened. And then it appears they went and picked up another fellow Apple employee to come work with them, which is Kim Beverett, who's a senior product manager at Apple. And she basically worked there for 10 years with Safari, WebKit, privacy messages, mail, phone, FaceTime, SharePoint, right? So she worked with all of the Apple infrastructure and tools, and now is building a product that goes and interfaces with them and other companies. So honestly, that makes a lot of sense. One thing that I do think is interesting, Apple intelligence is notoriously behind right now. And so the comments that we read on YouTube do sort of make sense. You know, a lot of people argue that Apple values privacy. If you go, there's a whole article on TechCrunch about this and they're like, you know, the reason why Apple's so far behind is because they value privacy. Okay, whatever. I don't really believe that. What's interesting about this deal is that OpenAI never said how much they've acquired this company for. They previously raised $6.5 million, but some of the investors of that original $6.5 million were CEO Sam Altman and also the CEO of Figma, who is Dylan Field. There's a bunch of other places, Context Ventures, Stellation Capital. ([Time 0:08:00](https://share.snipd.com/snip/778cd064-50ed-407e-8744-966cf68a7f56)) - **Acquisition Raises Conflict-Of-Interest Questions** - Sam Altman held a passive investment in Sky, disclosed by OpenAI after the acquisition. - That creates a conflict-of-interest perception since an investor benefited from OpenAI buying the company. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer They previously raised $6.5 million, but some of the investors of that original $6.5 million were CEO Sam Altman and also the CEO of Figma, who is Dylan Field. There's a bunch of other places, Context Ventures, Stellation Capital. There's a bunch of big places, but Sam Altman was one of the investors. So essentially by opening, I buying a company that he personally invested in, he personally makes money. And I think opening, I did disclose this. They, they, they're like, yeah, Sam Walton has a passive interest in this company through an investment fund. But like, I don't know. I've never heard of this company before, aside from the 10,000 views, I guess they got on YouTube and the 32 comments they got on YouTube this isn't a company that I've ever heard anyone Talk about before maybe it went viral on x a day that I wasn't using it so I missed it I don't know I don't know what the backstory is but basically not a very big company Sam Altman is the investor Uh how do you hear about them they don't have a launch product so anyways I mean I I'm happy that I guess they'll be working on something, but it's possible Sam Altman is acquiring this Because it's good for his portfolio. Who knows? All right, I'm not saying that that's anything like nefarious or illegal, but it just seems to be an interesting point that I, you know, would definitely want to bring up. So overall, I think that OpenAI, you know, on their whole blog post is kind of upfront about this. There's like this whole disclosure statement on the bottom of OpenAI's blog post. They're like, disclosure, an investment fund associated with Sam Altman held a passive investment in this, whatever. ([Time 0:09:06](https://share.snipd.com/snip/b7f693be-cdb1-4b09-94e6-f209454238ac)) - **Compare OS Strategies Before Committing** - Watch how OpenAI integrates Sky with ChatGPT and Atlas to evaluate real user value on Macs. - Expect Windows and Microsoft responses; compare OS-level approaches before adopting. Transcript: Jaeden Schafer Sky's deep integration with the Mac accelerates our vision of bringing AI directly into the tools people use every day. I will be honest, and I'll give them their flowers in the sense that they brought a really awesome player over from Apple who'd worked there for 10 years on all of the Apple's main core Apps on the Mac. And so bringing her in and then having this tie into all of those seems like a really good move. And I think they'll be able to do some interesting things. I'm sure people with Windows computers will be complaining about, you know, the fact that this is only on Mac. Hopefully it gets there to Windows someday if Microsoft doesn't, you know, fight them off and never let them do this. But at the end of the day, this will be an interesting company to follow. ([Time 0:10:56](https://share.snipd.com/snip/38917a7a-c4bf-4e6a-b4b3-1cfdc96d1691))