SAN FRANCISCO (AP) 鈥 OpenAI has recruited Jony Ive, the designer behind Apple's iPhone, to lead a new hardware project for the artificial intelligence company that makes ChatGPT.
OpenAI said it is acquiring io, a product and engineering company co-founded by Ive, in a deal valued at nearly $6.5 billion.
Ive became renowned for a meticulous design aesthetic that shaped the cultural zeitgeist during a 27-year career at Apple, which he left in 2019. He did his most influential work after Apple co-founder Steve Jobs returned to run the company in 1997, where the two forged a partnership that would hatch a succession of game-changing products like the iPhone.
The new OpenAI deal now thrusts Ive at the vanguard of AI 鈥 a technology driving the biggest industry shift since the iPhone鈥檚 arrival.
The company hasn't said exactly what product they will be making but it will likely be some kind of 鈥減hysical AI embodiments鈥 that bring generative AI chatbot technology out of computer screens into another form, such as through a car or a humanoid robot, said Gartner analyst Chirag Dekate, adding that it is too early to know for sure.
OpenAI said its CEO Sam Altman had been 鈥渜uietly鈥 collaborating since 2023 with Ive and his design firm, LoveFrom.
In a joint letter posted on OpenAI's website Wednesday, Ive and Altman said it 鈥渂ecame clear that our ambitions to develop, engineer and manufacture a new family of products demanded an entirely new company.鈥
That's when Ive co-founded io with three others about a year ago. OpenAI said it already owns a 23% stake in io from a prior collaborative agreement signed late last year. It says it will now pay $5 billion in equity for the acquisition.
OpenAI said Ive will not become an OpenAI employee and his design collective, LoveFrom, will remain independent but 鈥渨ill assume deep design and creative responsibilities across OpenAI and io.鈥 Both OpenAI and Ive's design firm are based in San Francisco.
Leading the new io division for OpenAI will be longtime executive Peter Welinder, who led robotics research in the startup's early years and more recently has been vice president of its 鈥渘ew product explorations鈥 team that delves into hardware, robotics and other early stage research.
Altman, 40, can only hope his still-blossoming partnership with Ive, 58, works out as well as the mind-meld between Jobs and Ive did at Apple.
Ive became like the paint and brush that Jobs utilized to bring his visions to life. The London-born Ive also became the voice of Apple鈥檚 effort to blend technological wizardry with sleek elegance. The company鈥檚 TV commercials and product announcements became renowned for Ivy discussing the intricacies of his exquisitely designed devices .
After Jobs died in 2011, Ive continued carry the torch for his late boss while still striving to create products that were as mesmerizing as they were ground breaking.
When he started his own firm, Ive derived the LoveFrom name from a Jobs鈥 observation that one way to hail humanity is by 鈥渕aking something with a great deal of care and love.鈥
Ive also chose to base LoveForm located in a historic part of San Francisco, located just near bars and cafes that were once frequented by such Beat Generation luminaries as 鈥淥n The Road鈥 author Jack Kerouac and 鈥淗owl鈥 author Allen Ginsberg.
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O'Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.
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