Jony Ive has confirmed that he’s working with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on an AI {hardware} venture. The affirmation got here immediately as a part of a profile of Ive in The New York Occasions, almost a yr after the potential for a collaboration between Altman and the longtime Apple designer was first reported on.
There aren’t plenty of particulars on the venture. Ive reportedly met Altman by Brian Chesky, the CEO of Airbnb, and the enterprise is being funded by Ive and the Emerson Collective, Laurene Powell Jobs’ firm. The Occasions reviews it might elevate $1 billion in funding by the tip of the yr, however makes no point out of Masayoshi Son, the SoftBank CEO rumored final yr to have invested $1 billion within the venture.
The venture solely has 10 staff at the moment, however they embody Tang Tan and Evans Hankey, two key individuals who labored with Ive on the iPhone. LoveFrom, Ive’s firm, is main the system’s design, in accordance 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 system itself? The Occasions says that Ive and Altman mentioned “how generative AI made it doable to create a brand new computing system as a result of the expertise might do extra for customers than conventional software program” because of its capability to deal with sophisticated requests. Final yr it was rumored to be impressed by touchscreen expertise and the unique iPhone.
Nevertheless it seems like few specifics are nailed down. LoveFrom cofounder Marc Newson instructed the Occasions that the AI product — and when it’ll come to market — are nonetheless being found out.
