Apple iPhone designer Sir Jony Ive joins Chatgpt-Maker OpenAi

Sir Jony Ive, the enormously influential British designer who is responsible for the appearance of Apple’s most iconic and successful products, is a member of OpenAi.

Baas Sam Altman said he was “excited” to work with the man he called the “greatest designer in the world”.

OpenAI, the creator of Chatgpt, buys the startup of Sir Jony, Io, in a $ 6.5 billion deal (£ 4.7 billion).

Mr. Altman said he was enthusiastic to “make a new generation of AI-driven computers together”.

Sir Jony – who has designed the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad – will take “Deep design and creative responsibilities” throughout the company, the two companies said in an announcement.

AI Software has made rapid progress in recent years, led by Chatgpt.

But the development of new hardware based on that has proved to be more a challenge – with various recent attempts that do not interest consumers and Attracting spot from reviewers.

Mr Altman, however, talked about his confidence that this partnership can succeed where others have failed.

“I think we get the chance here to fully imagine what it means to use a computer,” he said in a video that accompanied the announcement.

Sir Jony said he believed that the world was on the “edge of a new generation of technology”.

It may not take long before this new “family of devices” of the couple has an impact.

“The first thing we worked on, I think that has just recorded our imagination,” said Sir Jony.

Mr. Altman said that he has already tried a prototype of a new device designed by Sir Jony and his team, and he thinks it is “the coolest piece of technology that the world will ever have seen”.

Sir Jony worked 27 years for AppleHelp the company to breathe new life with groundbreaking products, including the iPhone and iPod.

He also designed the iMac in 1998 and the iPad in 2010.

When Sir Jony left the company in 2019, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook described him as “a unique figure in the design world and his role in Apple’s revival cannot be overestimated”.

Apple in Apple fell by more than 2% after the news from his partnership with OpenAi.

He left to find his own company, LoveFrom, which worked with companies such as Airbnb and Moncler.

In the announcement about the merger, it said that Lovefrom had been “quietly collaborating” with OpenAi for two years.

The idea for Io, which Sir Jony founded with others last year, followed this partnership.

“It became clear that our ambitions to develop, develop and produce a new family of products demanded a completely new company,” said Sir Jony and Mr. Altman.

OpenAi had a 23% interest in the start-up prior to the announcement of Wednesday, according to US Media.

Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight, told BBC News that it would “be foolish to bet against Jony Ive, given his remarkable track record of supplying products that disrupt a market”.

“There is no doubt that OpenAi would like to have a direct relationship with its customers instead of delivering services via devices made by or driven by Apple, Google or others,” he added.

A few companies such as Humane AI and Rabbit Custom made devices for the AI ​​era.

Humane AI, founded by a former Apple managers, struggled with his AI Pin devicewho was confronted with criticism of the lifetime of the battery, heat issues, limited functionality and high costs.

OpenAi caused a wave of investments in AI in 2022 when the chatgpt revealed.

It went on to new areas, such as shopping and searching, in a challenge to establish technical giants.

The trip to hardware comes as technical rivals such as Meta, Google and Apple have also invested in products such as headsets and glasses, with new opportunities due to progress in AI.

Additional reporting by Natalie Sherman