In a stunning move that will break new ground as it dives into hardware, OpenAI, creator and operator of the world’s most advanced artificial intelligence model, ChatGPT, has purchased io Products, the hardware startup launched by legendary former Apple design chief Sir Jony Ive.
Worth around $6.5 billion, the all-equity deal will put Ive into the position of Creative Head at OpenAI where he will be responsible to the design and development of a new lot of AI-enabled gadgets.
The acquisition is a major departure in strategy for OpenAI, which has specialized in developing software and cloud-based AI services.
With Ive, the man who created iconic products like the iPhone, iMac and Apple Watch, OpenAI hopes to combine it’s bleeding-edge AI technologies with best-in-class design to produce hardware that’s easy to use and human-centric.
io Products, co-founded by Ive and a number of former Apple alumni, including Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey, and Tang Tan, was set up with the goal of rethinking the way people engage with technology in the era of sophisticated AI.
We don’t know the exact products under consideration but both OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Ive have hinted at transformative devices that could challenge the way we think about personal computing.
“AI is an amazing technology, but it needs bright and conscientious people working at the intersection of technology, design, and understanding how users and the world work to build great tools,” Altman said in a joint statement.
Nobody else can do this like Jony and his team.” I’ve expressed this a sentiment, telling him how he believes his 30 years of design experience have brought him to this.”
As part of the acquisition, the io team, which consists of about 55 engineers and product developers, will integrate with OpenAI’s current research, engineering and product teams in San Francisco.
Though Ive himself will not be a full-time worker at OpenAI, he and his independent design company, LoveFrom, will take on a wide swath of design and creative duties for both OpenAI and io.
The move puts OpenAI into direct competition with other tech giants that have pushed into AI hardware, including Google and Meta.
OpenAI is rumoured to be aiming to develop a new ecosystem of devices for AI-first applications, rather than current smartphone and PC interfaces, according to industry analysts.
The purchase of io Products is OpenAI’s biggest to date, and it trumps any of its previous acquisitions, suggesting a significant investment by the company in hardware.
We can expect the first products from this collaboration to be shown off in the next few years, and they could change the way we think about communicating with AI for good.