According to Jony Ive ive, everything from the past 30 years has led to this moment. This is a partnership between iPhone designers and ChatGPT developers.
Ive will sell his hardware startup, IO, to Openai and take on creative and design leadership throughout the merged business. “Everything I’ve learned over the last 30 years has heightened my sense that at this moment I’ve taken me to this place,” he says in a video announcing the $6.4 billion (£4.8 billion) deal.
The main purpose is to design the most successful products of Ive’s Signature Achievement Apple and move on from your iPod, iPad and Apple Watch.
The UK-born designer has already developed prototype IO devices, with one of its users being Sam Altman, CEO of Openai.
Talking to Ive in a shiny nine-minute promotional heavy in patented Silicon Valley optimism, Altman said of the mystery gadget:
Regardless of the exaggeration, expectations will be arched anyway. Ive and Altman are worth supporting given the products they overseen, but observers say they have set ambitious goals.
“We’ve been working hard to get the most out of our business,” said Martha Bennett, analyst at Forrester Research.
Bennett points to the failure of AI hardware devices, such as Humane’s Dunct Ai ‘Pin’ (a small wearable AI assistant who received poor reviews), as an example of how Duo has “a steep hill to climb.” ive described small rabbit R1 devices as “a very poor product” as well as humane pins.
So, what prototype was Altman testing? He is telling employees that Openai plans to build a 100m AI “people” that will become part of users’ daily lives, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
This product is “inconspicuous” and has a paper report added to fully recognize the user’s surroundings and life, making it the third core device that someone has on their desk after the MacBook Pro and iPhone. The device is not a mobile phone or glasses. Altman said Ive was skeptical of building something to wear on his body, according to the WSJ.
This video shows the emergence of IO trading results – Ive’s Lovefrom Design Company will emerge next year, in which complex arrangements envisage Openai and IO design and creative surveillance.
After the newsletter promotion
Technology analyst Benedict Evans says Ive was clearly taken on board to answer Openai and Altman’s key questions.
Evans adds: “This is an AI lab running around trying to find a solution to turn it into the next Apple or Google.”
AI models are essentially commoditized. “It’s not clear how to distinguish them from each other,” says Evans. Now, Altman is trying to find hardware to pair with Openai’s groundbreaking software.
“Openai is about to do a lot at once. This IO deal is part of it. Sam is about to build an airplane while it’s flying,” he adds.
The Ive-Altman video is filmed at Cafe Zotrope in Rome Coppola, San Francisco. Ive and Altman believe that AI will bring them the hardware of the future.