Ex-Android Executives Develop AI Agent-Driven Operating System

A team of former Android executives, including Hugo Barra, has embarked on a venture to create an AI agent-oriented operating system through their new company, /dev/agents. This initiative aims to simplify the development of intelligent autonomous digital assistants, drawing inspiration from their Android experiences, and invites comparisons to an ‘Android-like moment’ for AI technologies.

In a new venture, former Android executives are dedicating their expertise to crafting an operating system tailored for AI agents. Among the visionary team is Hugo Barra, who once led Google’s Android product management. Their company, named ‘/dev/agents’, seeks to draw upon the team’s extensive ‘Android roots’.

AI firms are heralding AI agents as the next evolution in artificial intelligence, promising autonomous digital assistants capable of performing tasks and making decisions with minimal human intervention. Notable players like Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI have slated plans to release iterations of this concept in the coming months.

David Singleton, cofounder and CEO of /dev/agents, addressed Bloomberg, expressing that while AI agents hold substantial potential, the current development process is fraught with challenges, stating, “We can see the promise of AI agents, but as a developer, it’s just too hard to build anything good.” Singleton, who previously served as the VP of Engineering for Android at Google, advocates for an ‘Android-like moment for AI’.

The company is focused on creating a cloud-based, cutting-edge operating system for AI agents, devised to empower ‘trusted agents’ to seamlessly engage with users across diverse devices. Singleton articulated in a post on X that AI agents will require innovative UI paradigms, a redefined privacy framework, and a developer platform simplifying the construction of effective agents.

Chief Product Officer Hugo Barra, a key promoter of Android during its formative years, previously contributed to Xiaomi and later led Facebook’s Oculus VR team. The venture also includes CTO Ficus Kirkpatrick, an early Android engineer and former VP of AR and VR at Meta, and Chief Design Officer Nicholas Jitkoff, renowned for his work on ChromeOS design.