Technology company OpenAI has announced the acquisition of designer Jony Ive‘s startup IO in a bid to create products for artificial intelligence technology.
OpenAI founder Sam Altman, formerly of Google, announced today that it would acquire Ive’s company, which he founded a year ago.
OpenAI stated that Ive, known for his design of the Apple iPhone, and his team will work with OpenAI’s product and engineering teams in San Francisco. Ive runs a design collective called LoveFrom, also based in San Francisco.
“The IO team, focused on developing products that inspire, empower and enable, will now merge with OpenAI to work more intimately with the research, engineering and product teams in San Francisco,” said a joint release from Altman and Ive.
New family of products
“As IO merges with OpenAI, Jony and LoveFrom will assume deep design and creative responsibilities across OpenAI and IO.”
“It became clear that our ambitions to develop, engineer and manufacture a new family of products demanded an entirely new company.”
The release stated that the OpenAI team has been “quietly” collaborating with Ive and his team for the past two years.
There have been no details as to what the products will look like.
An interview with Ive and Altman, published in the New York Times, noted that the men have “some misgivings” about the design of iPhone and other technological interfaces, with Altman stating that he doesn’t “feel good about [his] relationship with technology right now”.
Misgivings over iPhone design
The design of the iPhone is perhaps one of the most widely known of the last 20 years, and Ive referenced his early “optimism” towards Silicon Valley technology in the release.
He said that the collaboration presents a culmination of his work in the United States over the last three decades.
“I have a growing sense that everything I have learned over the last 30 years has led me to this moment,” said Ive.
“While I am both anxious and excited about the responsibility of the substantial work ahead, I am so grateful for the opportunity to be part of such an important collaboration. The values and vision of Sam and the teams at OpenAI and IO are a rare inspiration.”
According to the New York Times, Ive and LoveFrom will maintain a degree of independence while working under the OpenAI banner. The Times also noted that OpenAI will purchase IO for $6.5 billion.
Industrial design around AI has been a hot topic in recent years, since the flurry of commercial releases of generative AI platforms such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT text generator.
Last year, we rounded up several industrial design products designed to integrate AI.
The photo is courtesy of OpenAI.
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