Ex-Apple designer Jony Ive confirms he’s working on AI hardware with Sam Altman

Jony Ive has confirmed that he's teamed up with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to bring a new hardware project to life. This revelation came through an update to Sam's bio in The New York Times, nearly a year after rumors had first surfaced about a potential partnership between the former Apple designer and Altman. While it initially appeared they were working on an AI-powered smartphone, the two are actually working on a new AI-powered device of some sort instead.

So far, a team of around 10 employees is involved in the project, including Tang Tan and Evans Hankey, two key figures who also worked with Ive as iPhone designers. Ive's company, LoveFrom, is responsible for the visual design of the product, according to the NYT. The team is reportedly working out of a 32,000-square-foot office in San Francisco, one of several properties Ive purchased within a single city block.

Industrial designer Marc Newson, who’s working with Ive, disclosed that the product is still in the process of shaping up and it's not really clear when exactly it will see the light of day. It has to be said that several companies by now have made an attempt at launching innovative AI devices, mostly to rather disheartening results. The Rabbit R1, released earlier this year, was said to have been trained on thousands of interfaces to help automate processes, but it didn’t exactly take off. Humane’s AI Pin, developed by another Apple veteran, Imran Chaudhri, and backed by Sam Altman, also turned out to be a commercial disaster.