Apple’s former Chief Design Officer Jony Ive is currently discussing a new project featuring a new “AI hardware” with the CEO of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, Sam Altman. On Tuesday, The Information reported talks have been ongoing about building a new kind of AI device. The website said its reporting was based on the knowledge of two people “familiar with the conversations” the two tech titans have allegedly been having.
It is still not publicly known what the actual hardware device could be or if the pair will actually even end up building it. However, Ive and Altman are thought to have articulated some thoughts about what new hardware for the AI age could look like.
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, an avid investor, is reportedly also involved in the conversations. Despite his involvement now, it’s unclear whether he’ll remain on board going forward.
Jony Ive is known to have been a close creative collaborator with Steve Jobs and at the design forefront of Apple’s most popular products. British-born Ive left Apple in 2019 after spending more than 20 years at Cupertino. He led the design of the colored iMacs that were a big part of Apple’s revival in the 90s. Ive was also part of the iPhone’s design team alongside Tony Fadell and also worked on revitalizing the MacBook.
OpenAI is the creator of the popular ChatGPT AI chatbot that is showing no signs of stagnating. In fact the company just announced it will be launching new voice and image features for the AI chatbot over the next two weeks.
With news of these discussions spreading like wildfire in the tech sector, ChatGPT now seems to be trying to further entrench its position as the leader in generative AI. It's facing increasing competition, most notably from Google Bard so a team-up with the man behind Apple's design ethos for a superstar new product seems a prudent step.
Of course, Google’s all-in-on-AI plans could be further cemented at the company’s Pixel 8 event taking place next month on October 4.
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