The New York Times in a tech profile of Jony Ive reported that he’s working with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on an AI hardware project. This was part of a story featuring Jony’s life after leaving Apple as a designer.
In the interview, Jony said that he and the Emerson Collective, Laurene Powell Jobs’ company, is funding the venture. The project has the potential to raise $1 billion in funding by the end of the year.
Further, it was stated that the project has only10 employees, with the possibility to include Tang Tan and Evans Hankey who worked with Ive on the iPhone. Right now, their company office is located in San Francisco, which is part of a $90 million strip of real estate bought by Ive.
Not much was revealed in the interview but only suggested hints about the possibilities of generative and computing devices that could do far more than a traditional software. In fact, last year similar speculations were rumored with the upcoming devices inspired by touchscreen technology and the mechanism of the original iPhone.
Much of the device development is being done in secret, however, as Ive mentioned, it will be, “a product that uses AI to create a computing experience that is less socially disruptive than the iPhone”. The nature of the gadget, its precise functions, and the release date is still under speculation, until then we wait for the next big tech transformation that’s going to change every industry.
