OpenAI has absolutely acquired Io, a three way partnership it cocreated final yr with Jony Ive, the famed British designer behind the modern industrial aesthetic that outlined the iPhone and greater than 20 years of Apple merchandise.
In an almost 10-minute video posted to X on Wednesday, Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated the Apple pioneer’s “creative collective” will “merge with OpenAI to work more intimately with the research, engineering, and product teams in San Francisco.” OpenAI says it’s paying $5 billion in fairness to amass Io.
The promotional video included musings on expertise from each Ive and Altman, set towards the golden-hour backdrop of the streets of San Francisco, however the two by no means share precisely what it’s they’re constructing. “We look forward to sharing our work next year,” a textual content assertion on the finish of the video reads. Given the pair’s emphasis on constructing a {hardware} system for the AI period, and Ive’s pedigree at Apple, it’s possible a consumer-facing product.
Io launched final spring as a part of a joint mission between OpenAI and Ive’s design agency LoveFrom. In the fourth quarter of final yr, Io and OpenAI entered into an official settlement for OpenAI to obtain a 23 p.c stake in Io. Now OpenAI is shopping for the entity outright.
The merger is a barely difficult one. The Io group was made up of 55 folks previous to this announcement. Now it’ll broaden to incorporate each Io and OpenAI staff—{hardware} and software program engineers, physicists, scientists, and “experts in product development and manufacturing,” in line with a weblog publish on OpenAI’s web site. Ive and Lovefrom will handle the inventive design course of. But Ive will stay impartial, OpenAI says, and his agency LoveFrom will proceed to function as a separate entity. The Io group will as an alternative report back to Peter Welinder, OpenAI’s vice chairman of product, who has labored at OpenAI for eight and a half years.
Io’s founding group has main design chops. Beyond Ive, the founders embrace Evans Hankey and Tang Tan, who each labored at Apple. Those who’ve labored intently with them say they’re identified to rent folks whom they imagine have distinctive style.
By bringing on Ive, OpenAI is formally embarking on what is probably going one of the vital bold AI {hardware} mission so far. Numerous different main tech corporations, together with Meta and Google, have tried creating AI-powered units akin to good glasses in recent times, however mainstream adoption of the expertise has been gradual and a few units have been tormented by glitches.
Humane, one other high-profile AI {hardware} startup based by former Apple staff, debuted a wearable system in late 2023. Reviewers later discovered the system, a pin, was prone to overheating and plenty of different points. Less than two years later Humane’s units had been pulled from the market, and its working system software program and patents had been offered to printer large HP.
The joint effort between Altman and Ive was spurred by developments in AI and computing energy. In its weblog publish, OpenAI wrote that “computers are now seeing, thinking and understanding.” Altman wrote on X that he was “excited to try to create a new generation of AI-powered computers.”
Altman reportedly has {hardware} ambitions past the generative AI software program his firm develops and sells, and Ive has seemingly been desperate to make new imprints within the design world since he left Apple in 2019. “I have a growing sense that everything I have learned over the past 30 years has led me to this moment,” Ive stated within the video. “While I am both anxious and excited about the responsibility of the substantial work ahead, I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of such an important collaboration.”
https://www.wired.com/story/jony-ive-open-ai-hardware-io/