Jony Ive confirms partnership with OpenAI on a new piece of AI hardware, despite market failures

In
the
past
year,
we’ve
seen
a
slew
of
devices
based
around
generative
AI
that
were
claimed
to
be
“the
next
big
thing.”
The
Humane
Ai
Pin
and
the

Rabbit
R1
are
two
significant
examples.
However,
both
failed
miserably
for
myriad
reasons,
with
the
most
significant
reason
being
people
don’t
seem
to
want
dedicated
hardware
for
AI
services
—
they
just
want
to
use
their
smartphones.

Despite
this,
we’ve
learned
today
that
Jony
Ive
—
the
man
most
directly
responsible
for
the
designs
of
the
iPhone,
iPad,
Apple
Watch,
and
more
Apple
products
under
Steve
Jobs
—
is
working
with
OpenAI’s
Sam
Altman
on
some
sort
of
new
AI-powered
hardware.
This
was
revealed
in
a
profile
on
Ive
in


The
New
York
Times.

Previously,
we
had
heard
rumors
that
Ive
and
OpenAI
were
working
together
on

AI
hardware
that
doesn’t
look
like
a
phone.
It’s
assumed
that
ChatGPT
would
power
this
device,
considering
the
ties
to
OpenAI.
However,
that’s
all
we
heard
until
today’s
confirmation
of
the
partnership.

According
to
the
report,
there
are
already
10
employees
working
on
this
project
and
Ive
is
looking
to
raise
venture
capital
to
support
a
new
company
that
would
create
the
product.
Due
to
Ive’s
and
Altman’s
respective
pedigrees,
it’s
expected
the
company
could
raise
$1
billion
by
the
end
of
2024.

Obviously,
Ive
is
a
tech
industry
legend,
and
Altman
is
on
his
way
to
being
talked
about
in
the
same
manner
as
Jobs,
Gates,
and
other
tech
titans.
However,
one
can’t
help
but
think
that
it
will
take
lightning
in
a
bottle
to
tear
people
away
from
a
smartphone
and
use
AI-powered
hardware
instead.
Because
if
the
hardware
can’t
replace
the
smartphone,
then
people
will
just
continue
to
use
the
smartphone.

Humane
couldn’t
do
it,
Rabbit
couldn’t
do
it,
so
time
will
tell
if
Ive
and
Altman
can
do
it.