OpenAI Acquires iPhone Designer Jony Ive’s Hardware Startup, Appoints Him as Creative Head
()- OpenAI has acquired Jony Ive’s startup, IO Products, in an acquisition worth $6.5 billion. They plan to appoint the lead designer behind initial iPhone models as their new creative director with the aim of developing gadgets specifically designed for the upcoming generation of generative AI technology.
LoveFrom, the design company established by Ive following his departure from Apple, has been collaborating with OpenAI for two years on developing generative AI gadgets—an arena where numerous startups have faltered because of significant computational requirements, exemplified by failures like Humane’s AI Pin.
Ive spearheading design, OpenAI plans to combine the technology driving its widely-used ChatGPT chatbot with the sleek product design acumen that turned gadgets like the iPhone into blockbusters.
The financial specifics of the agreement involving io, where I have been a cofounder for the past twelve months, were not revealed by the companies involved. According to an insider knowledgeable about the situation, this all-equity transaction was estimated at approximately $6.5 billion, considering OpenAI’s valuation stood at around $300 billion.
According to an anonymous source discussing confidential information, OpenAI formerly held a 23% share in the organization.
The technologies we employ for delivering and linking us with unprecedented innovations are actually quite outdated—decades old, indeed. It only makes logical sense to consider that there must be advancements surpassing these older systems we currently use,” stated both OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Ive in a video shared on OpenAI’s blog.
Altman mentioned having a prototype of a device without providing additional information, yet he referred to it as “the most amazing technological innovation the planet has ever witnessed.”
Apple did not promptly reply to requests for comments. Its shares dropped over 2 percent following this news.
The company behind the iPhone has been sluggish in introducing Apple Intelligence, which includes features with access to ChatGPT, lagging behind competitor Android phones that offer multiple advanced AI tools.
D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria stated that OpenAI aims to control the subsequent hardware platform to avoid having to distribute their offerings via Apple iOS or Google’s Android.
This mirrors the same aspiration Meta holds for the Quest headsets and Meta Wayfarers.
Several firms like Humane AI and Rabbit have attempted to create specialized gadgets for the age of artificial intelligence.
Nevertheless, Humane AI, launched by an ex-Apple executive, encountered difficulties with its AI Pin gadget. The device was criticized for its poor battery performance, overheating problems, restricted features, and steep price tag.
HP has purchased Humane AI’s assets, encompassing their AI platform called Cosmos, along with their intellectual property and skilled professionals, for a sum of $116 million. This acquisition essentially marks the end of the AI Pin product.
On the contrary, Rabbit has managed to sell over 100,000 R1 devices; however, critics point out that its capabilities still fall short when benchmarked against those of smartphones.
(Reported by Akash Sriram and Aditya Soni in Bengaluru and Krystal Hu in New York; Edited by Arun Koyyur)