Jony Ive confirms secret AI device with OpenAI

The man who designed the iPhone and glued humanity to glass screens wants to build a new device to pull us back out.

Following nearly a year of quiet whispers, former Apple design chief Jony Ive has officially confirmed to The New York Times that he is teaming up with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to develop an AI-powered hardware device. It marks Ive's first major tech product since his departure from Apple.

An iPhone reunion on a $90M block

According to the profile, Ive and Altman were originally introduced by Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky.

The venture is currently funded by Ive himself and Emerson Collective, the company led by Laurene Powell Jobs. The Times reported that the startup could raise up to $1 billion in funding by the end of the year, though it made no mention of SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, who was previously rumored to be backing the effort with a cool billion.

Right now, the operation is remarkably lean with just about 10 employees. But that roster packs serious pedigree: it includes Tang Tan and Evans Hankey, two pivotal design leaders who worked alongside Ive to shape the iPhone at Apple.

Ive’s firm, LoveFrom, is heading up the hardware design. The team is currently working out of a 32,000-square-foot office in San Francisco, situated on a single city block where Ive has quietly bought up $90 million worth of real estate.

Less disruptive than the iPhone

Details on what the hardware actually does remain tightly locked down.

The Times noted that Ive and Altman have been brainstorming how generative AI enables an entirely new class of computing devices, arguing the technology can handle far more complex requests for users than traditional software ever could. The shared goal? To create a device that is “less socially disruptive than the iPhone.”

While rumors last year suggested the hardware might draw inspiration from touchscreen tech and the original iPhone, nothing appears set in stone. LoveFrom co-founder Marc Newson told The Times that the exact form factor and its eventual release timeline are still being figured out.

Why it matters

This is the heavyweight design-meets-frontier-AI pairing everyone has been waiting for, especially after a dismal first wave of standalone AI gadgets.

For everyday users, products like the Humane AI Pin and Rabbit r1 proved that shrinking an AI model into a clip-on gadget doesn't magically replace a smartphone. Having Ive team up with OpenAI brings unmatched industrial design credibility to the table, but with the product still in conceptual stages, there is nothing to buy or test yet. Sticking with your smartphone remains the only sensible play for now.

For the broader industry, Altman’s ambitions are coming into sharp focus. Even as OpenAI cozies up to Apple to bring ChatGPT directly into iOS, Altman is actively hedging his bets by building his own hardware beachhead with the very architect who created Apple’s modern design language.

Still, we think building something "less disruptive than the iPhone" is easier said than done. The smartphone won because visual screens and instant inputs are brutally efficient. Attempting to manage complex AI tasks without screen addiction sounds noble, but it poses an immense interaction design hurdle that even Jony Ive might struggle to clear without Apple’s manufacturing muscle.