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 venture, which can see the veteran designer staff 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 12 months — 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,” in line with the article. Not that Apple itself is averse to AI integrations — the newest iOS 18 launch is about to get an replace that can 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 moderately than a product unto itself, and that would be the differentiating issue for this new machine. OpenAI might be on the core. What industrial design kind that can take is “nonetheless being decided”, however Ive’s staff has exemplary pedigree — a few of his new crew labored alongside him on iPhone designs over time.
A tool revolution to come back?
Ive’s venture received’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 greatest.
The Rabbit R1 launched earlier this 12 months, 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 constraints its wearable kind issue offered.
But when anybody can create an AI machine kind issue that really works, it’s Ive. His meticulous consideration to element has been vastly influential on the planet 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 e-book concerning the historical past of buttons.
Jony Ive says he has spent 5 years engaged on a e-book about buttons pic.twitter.com/PqWhQ8KYLRSeptember 23, 2024
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