Last night.OpenAI Suddenly a new announcement has been made: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Apple's former Chief Design Officer Jony Ive are deeply collaborating to create a new product called theio"The fullnew company.
The announcement of the partnership will be a remarkable moment, as OpenAI says that despite the unprecedented capabilities of computers to see, think, and understand, people's experiences are still influenced by legacy products and interfaces. With this partnership, both companies hope to bring hardware devices with new AI interactions to the masses.
Two years ago, Jony Ive and his creative team LoveFrom began a low-key collaboration with Sam Altman and OpenAI. Based on friendship, curiosity, and shared values, the collaboration has progressed quickly, and initial ideas and explorations have begun to translate into concrete design solutions.
As ideas become reality, developing, designing, and manufacturing a new line of products requires a new company to support. So a year ago, Jony Ive, along with Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey, and Tang Tan, co-founded the io team. According to reports, io brings together top hardware and software engineers, technologists, physicists, scientists, researchers, and other types of experts, many of whom have been working closely together for decades.
Now OpenAI has officially announced that it is merging with the io team to allow for closer product development and teamwork. With the merger, Jony Ive and LoveFrom will be responsible for the design and creative aspects of the overall OpenAI and io programs.
Commenting on the collaboration, Sam Altman said that AI is an incredible technology, but great tools require work on all three aspects - technology, design, and understanding of people and the world. He emphasized that "no one is better at this than Jony and his team." added Altman:
I hope this collaboration will take me back 30 years to re-live the pleasure, wonder and creative spirit that I felt when I first got my hands on an Apple computer.
Jony Ive says that everything he's learned over the past 30 years has led him to this moment, citing the values and ideas of Altman, OpenAI, and the io team as rare sources of inspiration. He also recalled how when he first immigrated to the US 30 years ago, he was drawn to the "exciting and pure" optimism of Silicon Valley.
According to Bloomberg, OpenAI is acquiring io for $6.5 billion, and the deal is expected to close this summer. After the acquisition, io will provide OpenAI with 55 hardware engineers, software developers and other experts.
It's worth noting that both parties want the first hardware device to be a truly novel product, with a launch planned for 2026.