In short: Jony Ive, the legendary designer behind iconic merchandise just like the iMac, iPod, and iPhone, is engaged on a mysterious AI {hardware} system in partnership with Sam Altman’s OpenAI. That will not be recent information, however what have been beforehand whispers have now been confirmed by the person himself in a brand new report.
The New York Occasions talked about the existence of this stealth undertaking in a brand new profile on Ive revealed this week. In line with the report, Ive met OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for dinner final 12 months after an introduction from Airbnb chief Brian Chesky. Over a number of meals, the pair hatched a plan to create a brand new sort of computing system powered by generative AI. The core thought is that AI’s quickly advancing capabilities allow new frontiers for the way we work together with computer systems and software program.
In line with the report, the duo mentioned how generative AI has “made it doable to create a brand new computing system as a result of the expertise might do extra for customers than conventional software program because it might summarize and prioritize messages, determine and title objects like crops and ultimately area complicated requests like reserving journey.”
If this sounds acquainted, it is as a result of it has been tried earlier than. The Rabbit R1 launched earlier this 12 months was stated to have been educated on 1000’s of interfaces to assist automate processes like reserving flights, tickets to motion pictures, and even calling you an Uber. Sadly, the system by no means took off, identical to the Humane Ai Pin it aimed to one-up.
Maybe Ive and Altman’s enterprise might fare higher. It is managed to deliver on some key expertise; the present group of 10 staff consists of Tang Tan and Evans Hankey, two former Apple design leaders who labored carefully with Ive on blockbusters like the unique iPhone. Ive’s agency LoveFrom is spearheading the product’s design, the report says. However then once more, the Humane Ai Pin was additionally designed and launched by ex-Apple staff.
To accommodate their operations, Ive and group dropped a cool $60 million in February on a 32,000-square-foot constructing known as the Little Fox Theater in San Francisco. The group was additionally noticed schlepping in chairs and containers with the “earliest concepts” for the product have been seen carried round.
Bankrolling this formidable endeavor is not any small feat both. It is claimed that Ive and Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective have already invested, with plans to boost as much as $1 billion extra from buyers by 12 months’s finish.
As for what this secret product goes to be, particulars proceed to be extraordinarily scarce. LoveFrom co-founder Marc Newson admitted to the NYT that the ultimate type and launch timing are nonetheless being labored out.