When OpenAI released
ChatGPT in late 2022,
Many referred to it as an “iPhone moment” for artificial intelligence technology.
On Wednesday, OpenAI took the analogy to the next logical step by hiring the creator of the
Apple
The iPhone is included in a $6.5 billion purchase that has the capability to introduce a completely novel method for individuals to engage with artificial intelligence technologies.
OpenAI announced that they have acquired io, a company started by ex-employees.
Apple’s head of design Jony Ive
Ive and his team will now join OpenAI and spearhead creative and design efforts, focusing particularly on AI-driven computing devices. This addition marks an exciting new venture for what has rapidly evolved into a major force in the realm of artificial intelligence.
OpenAI stated that “The io team, dedicated to creating products that inspire, empower, and facilitate, will now join forces with us. This merger aims to enhance collaboration with our research, engineering, and product teams based in San Francisco,”
a blog post
.
This agreement represents the largest acquisition in history for the privately owned OpenAI, following recent investor involvement.
valued at $300 billion.
It comes just a weeks after OpenAI paid
$3 billion for an AI-aided software coding tool called Windsurfer.
Details about io’s product have not been revealed. What is increasingly clear, however, is that the interface to a universal personal AI assistant may not be on your phone, and definitely not your laptop. It could be some kind of wearable device. And Ive, given his huge role in making the iPhone, is well positioned to build one.
“The products that we’re using to deliver and connect us to unimaginable technology, they’re decades old. So it’s just common sense to at least think surely there’s something beyond these legacy products,” Ive said in a
video that OpenAI posted
about the acquisition.
Altman is betting that lightning will strike twice with his new hire. The market for a new AI device, like the smartphone before it, could be huge. While there will certainly be competing devices, as there were with smartphones, Altman’s expensive bet could pay off big. Since Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, its revenue and market valuation have exploded, with Apple now worth more than $3 trillion.
In OpenAI’s video, Altman said he was impressed with the AI gadget that Ive’s company has built, but offered no details about it. “Jony recently gave me one of the prototypes of the device for the first time to take home and I’ve been able to live with it, and I think it is the coolest piece that the world will have ever seen,” he said.
Or course, the acquisition, which the Wall Street Journal said was expected to close in the summer pending regulatory approval, comes with major risks. Whatever the team ends up building with OpenAI, if anything, could flop. Meanwhile, OpenAI is burning through cash at a rapid rate as it tries to compete against Big Tech companies like Google-parent Alphabet and Facebook-parent
Meta
.
The partnership between Ives and OpenAI is not the initial one to imagine a completely
a new type of hardware device
For the era of artificial intelligence, Meta’s AI-powered RayBan smart glasses have gained significant consumer appeal, reaching such popularity that
Google
declared its own collaboration on Tuesday with
Warby Parker
To develop intelligent eyewear. Other initiatives, such as the highly anticipated Humane badge—which was developed by two ex-Apple employees—have also failed to materialize.
expensive flops
bedeviled by technical glitches.
Following the announcement of the acquisition involving the new OpenAI partnership, which suggests that investors see potential for success, Apple’s stock price rapidly declined, dropping over 2.5%.
This tale was initially showcased on
newsinpo.site
