He introduced Apple’s {hardware} design to new heights — may Jony Ive do the identical for the burgeoning marketplace for AI-focussed {hardware}?
That’s the hope for Ive’s subsequent undertaking, which can see the veteran designer workforce up with ChatGPT developer OpenAI for a brand new {hardware} system leveraging the corporate’s fast-growing synthetic intelligence merchandise.
The partnership — rumored earlier this yr — has now been confirmed in a New York Times profile which explores Ive’s post-Apple independence, together with discussions with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
The pair have agreed to companion on a brand new “synthetic intelligence system 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 can embrace baked-in entry to ChatGPT and OpenAI tech.
However iPhones, together with the model new iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro, nonetheless make use of AI as a function slightly than a product unto itself, and that would be the differentiating issue for this new system. OpenAI will probably be on the core. What industrial design kind that can take is “nonetheless being decided”, however Ive’s workforce 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 undertaking 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 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 constraints its wearable kind issue offered.
But when anybody can create an AI system kind issue that truly works, it’s Ive. His meticulous consideration to element has been vastly influential on this planet of tech, revolutionizing computing system design. If his focus was ever in query, take this secondary snippet from the article: he’s simply spent 5 years engaged on a guide in regards to the historical past of buttons.
Jony Ive says he has spent 5 years engaged on a guide about buttons pic.twitter.com/PqWhQ8KYLRSeptember 23, 2024
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