STORY: He’s the man who designed the original iPhone and other famous Apple products.
Now Jony Ive is set to work for OpenAI.
The ChatGPT maker is buying his hardware startup io Products in a deal sources valued at $6.5 billion.
Though none of the parties involved would confirm the terms of the agreement.
Ive will now become OpenAI’s creative head.
The company hopes that will let it combine design and technology in the same way that proved so successful for Apple.
Boss Sam Altman said OpenAI was thinking about new ways of interacting with AI.
Another Ive startup – design firm LoveFrom – has been working with the bot maker for two years on hardware.
Altman said he had a prototype of a device that he described as “the coolest piece of technology the world will have ever seen”.
Though he offered no further details of what it might be.
One analyst said OpenAI wanted to own the next big hardware platform so that it doesn’t have to sell its products through Apple or Google devices.
But attempts to create the next big thing in AI gadgets have run into challenges.
Humane AI – set up by former Apple executives – saw its AI Pin flop.
The gadget was criticized for high costs, poor battery life and limited functionality.
Meanwhile, startup Rabbit has sold some 100,000 of its r1 devices, but it too has been criticized for limited functionality compared to smartphones.
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