OpenAI has completed its acquisition of io Products, the AI hardware design firm led by former Apple designer Jony Ive.
In May, Sam Altman and Jony Ive released a video announcing the upcoming partnership between Ive's AI startup, "io" and Altman's OpenAI. While the video was eventually removed when Ive's company name was challenged, the deal still continued, to the tune of
Now, on July 9, the Sam & Jony page on OpenAI has been updated to reflect the new partnership. It reads:
"We're thrilled to share that the io Products, Inc. team has officially merged with OpenAI. Jony Ive and LoveFrom remain independent and have assumed deep design and creative responsibilities across OpenAI."
From Apple to artificial intelligence
While Ive and io may be cuddling up to Altman's OpenAI, he previously had a nearly three-decade tenure at Apple. He only somewhat recently departed the Cupertino tech giant in 2019 to found his own design company, LoveFrom.
Ive has since hired many ex-Apple staff, including his own replacement, Evans Hankey. Ive also hired ex-Apple design lead Tang Tan specifically to work on the AI startup collaboration with Sam Altman.
Initially, it was reported that OpenAI would buy Jony Ive's AI startup, simply named "io", for $500 million. To say that the actual sale cost was a bit higher would be an understatement.
The final sale price wound up being nearly $6.5 billion — in stock.
The pair, for their part, believes that they're going to change the way humans interface with technology. While it's not entirely clear how they're going to do it, it seems like they have hopes of creating a new device.
Some speculate that the device may, effectively, be a phone without a screen. Even if it isn't, it is clear that the device will be a voice assistant first and foremost.
Hopefully, the pair has better luck than Humane, whose AI Pin was poorly received, and the company has since gone under.
