Jony Ive confirms he’s working on a new device with OpenAI

Jony Ive has confirmed that he’s working with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on an AI {hardware} venture. The affirmation got here as we speak as a part of a profile of Ive in The New York Instances, practically a yr after the potential of a collaboration between Altman and the longtime Apple designer was first reported on.

There aren’t loads of particulars on the venture. Ive reportedly met Altman by Brian Chesky, the CEO of Airbnb, and the enterprise is being funded by Ive and the Emerson Collective, Laurene Powell Jobs’ firm. The Instances experiences it might elevate $1 billion in funding by the top of the yr, however makes no point out of Masayoshi Son, the SoftBank CEO rumored final yr to have invested $1 billion within the venture.

The venture solely has 10 staff at present, however they embody Tang Tan and Evans Hankey, two key individuals who labored with Ive on the iPhone. LoveFrom, Ive’s firm, is main the system’s design, in line with the report. The crew is reportedly now figuring out of a 32,000-square-foot workplace constructing in San Francisco, a part of a $90 million strip of actual property that Ive has purchased up on single metropolis block.

As for the system itself? The Instances says that Ive and Altman mentioned “how generative AI made it attainable to create a brand new computing system as a result of the know-how might do extra for customers than conventional software program” as a result of its capacity to deal with difficult requests. Final yr it was rumored to be impressed by touchscreen know-how and the unique iPhone.

Nevertheless it appears like few specifics are nailed down. LoveFrom cofounder Marc Newson instructed the Instances that the AI product — and when it’ll come to market — are nonetheless being found out.