Sir Jony Ive will \u201cassume deep design and creative responsibilities\u201d to build new products for OpenAI, the company that makes ChatGPT.<\/p>\n
It comes after the company bought io, a hardware start-up Ive founded with fellow Apple alumni Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey and Tang Tan in 2024. The long-term plan was seemingly always to merge with OpenAI.<\/p>\n
The deal is reported to be worth $6.5 billion, and although Ive will not join OpenAI himself, his LoveFrom<\/a> studio will \u201ctake over design for all of OpenAI, including its software,\u201d Bloomberg reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n The first products are expected to launch in 2026, although there are no details yet as to what they will be.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a growing sense that everything I have learned over the last 30 years has led me to this moment,\u201d Ive said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile I am both anxious and excited about the responsibility of the substantial work ahead, I am so grateful for the opportunity to be part of such an important collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n A statement posted on the OpenAI website<\/a> said that founder Sam Altman started working with LoveFrom \u2013 co-founded by Ive, Marc Newson and Peter Saville \u2013 two years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cTentative ideas and explorations evolved into tangible designs,\u201d the statement says.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ideas seemed important and useful. They were optimistic and hopeful. They were inspiring. They made everyone smile. They reminded us of a time when we celebrated human achievement, grateful for new tools that helped us learn, explore and create.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI have a growing sense that everything I have learned over the last 30 years has led me to this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n This led to the realisation that OpenAI\u2019s \u201cambitions to develop, engineer and manufacture a new family of products demanded an entirely new company\u201d and this led to the creation of io.<\/p>\n \u201cAI is an incredible technology, but great tools require work at the intersection of technology, design, and understanding people and the world,\u201d Altman said. \u201cNo-one can do this like Jony and his team; the amount of care they put into every aspect of the process is extraordinary.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat it means to use technology can change in a profound way. I hope we can bring some of the delight, wonder and creative spirit that I first felt using an Apple Computer 30 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n OpenAI also released a ten-minute video announcing the new partnership. In the film, Altman says he believes, \u201cthey have an opportunity to completely re-imagine what it means to use a computer.\u201d<\/p>\n io\u2019s team of hardware and software engineers, physicists, researchers and manufacturing experts have already produced the first prototype. Altman says Ive called it \u201cthe best work he had ever done\u201d while Altman thinks it will be \u201cthe coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n So far, AI-enabled products like the Rabbit R1 companion and the Humane AI Pin have been underwhelming \u2013 tech blogger Marques Brownlee called the latter, \u201cthe worst product I\u2019ve ever reviewed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n But Altman is clearly confident that their products will buck this trend. In the film, Ive points out that the hardware people use to work with AI comes from a different era.<\/p>\n \u201cThe products that we are using to connect us to unimaginable technology, they\u2019re decades old,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd so it\u2019s just common sense to at least think, surely there\u2019s something beyond these legacy products.\u201d<\/p>\n Altman agrees. \u201cI think this technology deserves something so much better,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n When he appeared on the BBC\u2019s Desert Island Discs programme in February<\/a>, Ive said that society needed \u201chealthy discussions\u201d about AI and in particular \u201cthe rate of change\u201d which he feared was not yet being fully grasped.<\/p>\n In the same interview, he also admitted that he was troubled by the iPhone\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n \u201cThe nature of innovation is there will be unpredicted consequences,\u201d he told host Lauren Laverne.<\/p>\n \u201cI celebrate, and am encouraged by, the very positive contribution, the empowerment and the liberty it has provided to so many people, in so many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n And while what he calls \u201cthe not-so-positive consequences\u201d were unintended, \u201cthat doesn\u2019t matter relative to how I feel responsible,\u201d Ive said. \u201cThat weighs, and is a contributor to decisions that I have made since, and decisions I am making in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n In the OpenAI film, Altman says the pair bonded over \u201cshared values about what technology should be, when technology\u2019s been really good, when it\u2019s gone wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOur motivations and values are completely the same,\u201d Ive adds.<\/p>\n Ive also has previous experience working with a visionary but controversial founder, in Steve Jobs.<\/p>\n In a review of tech journalist Karen Hao\u2019s new book<\/a>, Empire of AI: Inside the Reckless Race for Total Domination<\/em>, The Guardian<\/em> described Altman as, \u201cdepending how you view him, the villain who has put humanity on the path to mass extinction, or the visionary utopian who will bring us cures for diseases and a revolution in how we work.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking on Desert Island Discs,<\/em> Ive complained about the \u201cabsurd anecdotes and stories\u201d about Jobs and his leadership style, which Ive insisted had been taken out of context.<\/p>\n