OpenAI acquires Sky.app

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

What Sky Is and Why It Matters

  • Commenters explain Sky as a macOS-only “natural language interface” that watches your screen, understands context, and can act through system APIs and app intents.
  • It’s often compared to Alfred/Raycast + LLM, or a more powerful, context-aware version of Apple Shortcuts/Automator on the desktop.
  • Several note that the team previously built Workflow/Shortcuts and are seen as having strong Apple-platform product taste and deep OS knowledge.

Reactions to the Acquisition

  • Many see it as a classic acquihire: buying a small, pre-launch app mainly to get a specialized macOS team.
  • Some are surprised Apple didn’t buy them, given prior history with the same founders and Apple’s weak visible progress on AI assistants.
  • Others argue Apple may have tried, or that ambitious engineers prefer working outside Apple’s constraints.

OpenAI Strategy, Moat, and Valuation

  • A number of comments link this to broader consolidation and “tech feudalism,” where big AI players buy out promising small companies to absorb talent and attention.
  • Some worry OpenAI is using VC money and M&A to justify a high valuation without clear profitability or durable moat.
  • Others counter that acquisitions are a normal growth lever, even for startups, citing historical examples from Google, Microsoft, and Apple.

Apple’s AI Posture vs. OpenAI’s Push on macOS/iOS

  • Multiple threads criticize Apple’s “atrocious” AI execution and Siri’s limitations, though a few report recent quiet improvements in Siri answers.
  • One camp says Apple is wisely cautious: LLM assistants are inherently unreliable and hard to control, clashing with Apple’s “appliance-like,” predictable product philosophy and risk profile.
  • Another camp says Apple has simply fallen behind and ceded ground; OpenAI is “skating to where Apple should be,” with a Mac ChatGPT app, Sora for iOS, and now Sky.
  • There’s speculation that OpenAI is inching toward being an OS-like layer or “cover” over existing systems, and that Apple/Google/Microsoft could still cut them off at the platform level.

Privacy, UX, and Usefulness Concerns

  • Some find the Sky demo underwhelming, focused on trivial tasks (messages, calendar, travel bookings) and “Clippy-like” hand-holding.
  • Skeptics question whether AI agents on top of human-centric UIs are the right way to automate, versus proper APIs.
  • There is unease about an app that continuously “watches your screen” and sends context to OpenAI, with users hoping Apple will allow strong local-only alternatives or restrict such access.