iPhone designer Jony Ive and OpenAI’s Sam Altman are working on a top-secret AI device, report says
Sam Altman, the CEO of the company behind ChatGPT and Dall-E, is reportedly working with former Apple design chief Jony Ive on a top-secret artificial intelligence computer project.
Ive, who designed the iPhone and iPad, among other things, is teaming up with OpenAI CEO Altman to create a new AI-powered computing device that should be “less socially disruptive than the iPhone,” according to The New York Times.
Few details are known about the AI device, but Ive and Altman have already raised funding for the project from investors including Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, the report said. The funding could reach $1 billion by the end of the year.
Ive’s design firm LoveFrom, which he co-founded after leaving Apple five years ago, is behind the development of the AI-powered device. The company — which was co-founded by Mark Newson, a noted luxury designer who worked on the Apple Watch — employs other former Apple executives, including Tang Tan, who oversaw the development of the iPhone. LoveFrom works with clients such as Airbnb and Ferrari.
Newson told the Times that “what the product would be and when it would be released were still being determined.”
The partnership began over a series of dinners when Ive and Altman discussed the power of generative AI and its potential for computing devices, the report said.
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AI-powered devices
The concept of an AI-powered device follows the introduction this year of a handful of devices that have yet to take off. The $700 Humane AI Pin, which turns surfaces including your hand into a mobile screen, received mixed reviews and people are reportedly returning the product in large numbers. The $199 Rabbit R1 handheld device, which uses AI to perform tasks, also fell short of expectations.
Meanwhile, companies including Google and Samsung have added generative AI capabilities to their phone ranges. Just last week, Apple’s new iPhone 16 devices went on sale, and the company’s Apple Intelligence features will arrive on them in the coming weeks and months.
But in an age where we’re so distracted by mobile devices, a device that offers a more mindful, less distracting experience could be attractive to consumers.
Neither LoveFrom nor OpenAI immediately responded to a request for comment.
