He introduced Apple’s {hardware} design to new heights — might Jony Ive do the identical for the burgeoning marketplace for AI-focussed {hardware}?
That’s the hope for Ive’s subsequent challenge, which is able to see the veteran designer group up with ChatGPT developer OpenAI for a brand new {hardware} machine leveraging the corporate’s fast-growing synthetic intelligence merchandise.
The partnership — rumored earlier this yr — has now been confirmed in a New York Instances profile which explores Ive’s post-Apple independence, together with discussions with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
The pair have agreed to accomplice on a brand new “synthetic intelligence machine firm” for a product “that makes use of AI to create a computing expertise that’s much less socially disruptive than the iPhone,” based on the article. Not that Apple itself is averse to AI integrations — the most recent iOS 18 launch is ready to get an replace that may embody baked-in entry to ChatGPT and OpenAI tech.
However iPhones, together with the model new iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Professional, nonetheless make use of AI as a function quite than a product unto itself, and that would be the differentiating issue for this new machine. OpenAI shall be on the core. What industrial design type that may take is “nonetheless being decided”, however Ive’s group has exemplary pedigree — a few of his new crew labored alongside him on iPhone designs through the years.
A tool revolution to come back?
Ive’s challenge gained’t be the primary to attempt to make a bespoke, built-for-purpose AI {hardware} design. However early forays into the market have been blended at finest.
The Rabbit R1 launched earlier this yr, and charmed with its cutesy phone-like design. However its precise usefulness, swapping out conventional apps for generative AI responses, proved clunky. Likewise, the Humane AI pin launched to nice hype, however quickly fell flat of the restrictions its wearable type issue introduced.
But when anybody can create an AI machine type issue that really works, it’s Ive. His meticulous consideration to element has been massively influential on the earth of tech, revolutionizing computing machine design. If his focus was ever in query, take this secondary snippet from the article: he’s simply spent 5 years engaged on a ebook concerning the historical past of buttons.
Jony Ive says he has spent 5 years engaged on a ebook about buttons pic.twitter.com/PqWhQ8KYLRSeptember 23, 2024
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