Jony Ive became famous for his role as chief design officer at Apple, as he was responsible for many important projects at the company. Ive left Apple in 2019 to found his own design firm, LoveFrom, and has since worked with partners such as Airbnb and Ferrari. According to a new report, Ive is now discussing the project of a new “AI hardware” with Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.
Jony Ive might help OpenAI to build a new hardware
As reported by The Information, Ive has been in talks with Altman about building a new AI device. It’s unclear at this point what the purpose of this device will be or what it will look like, but sources familiar with the conversations say that they want to create a “new hardware for the age of AI.”
Interestingly, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, also known to be an investor, is reportedly involved in the conversations between Jony Ive and Altman. The report notes that OpenAI has already raised $11 billion from high-profile investors, including Khosla Ventures and even Mictosoft.
OpenAI is the developer behind the popular ChatGPT, a chatbot based on artificial intelligence that can answer questions, write articles, and even code. Microsoft, for example, invested in OpenAI after integrating ChatGPT with its own software. At the same time, the news comes as Apple has been internally working on a ChatGPT competitor.
According to rumors, the internally named “Apple GPT” is an AI chatbot that uses various machine learning projects on a shared foundation. However, a Bloomberg report also revealed that the company considered making a commercial agreement to use OpenAI’s technologies after conducting tests with its in-house AI technology.
It would be quite interesting to see Jony Ive working on a technology that would eventually be rivaled by Apple, or even licensed to Apple.
More about Ive
Ive left Apple after working for the company for more than 20 years. At the time, he continued to help Apple as a consultant. However, in 2022, the partnership between Ive and Apple came to an end, so he no longer has a role in Apple’s product development. Apple’s last product signed by Ive was the 2019 Mac Pro.
Behind the scenes, Ive reportedly helped Apple design some of its latest products, such as the AirPods Max and the M1 iMac.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments