Jony Ive has confirmed that he’s working with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on an AI {hardware} venture. The affirmation got here right now as a part of a profile of Ive in The New York Instances, almost a 12 months after the potential for a collaboration between Altman and the longtime Apple designer was first reported on.
There aren’t lots of particulars on the venture. Ive reportedly met Altman by means of Brian Chesky, the CEO of Airbnb, and the enterprise is being funded by Ive and the Emerson Collective, Laurene Powell Jobs’ firm. The Instances experiences it might elevate $1 billion in funding by the top of the 12 months, however makes no point out of Masayoshi Son, the SoftBank CEO rumored final 12 months to have invested $1 billion within the venture.
The venture solely has 10 workers at the moment, however they embrace Tang Tan and Evans Hankey, two key individuals who labored with Ive on the iPhone. LoveFrom, Ive’s firm, is main the gadget’s design, in line with the report. The staff is reportedly now figuring out of a 32,000-square-foot workplace constructing in San Francisco, a part of a $90 million strip of actual property that Ive has purchased up on single metropolis block.
As for the gadget itself? The Instances says that Ive and Altman mentioned “how generative AI made it potential to create a brand new computing gadget as a result of the know-how might do extra for customers than conventional software program” attributable to its capability to deal with difficult requests. Final 12 months it was rumored to be impressed by touchscreen know-how and the unique iPhone.
However it seems like few specifics are nailed down. LoveFrom cofounder Marc Newson advised the Instances that the AI product — and when it’ll come to market — are nonetheless being discovered.
