OpenAI joins hands with Jony Ive to build "iPhone of AI"

Artificial intelligence (AI) has taken the world by storm lately. Since ChatGPT’s debut in November 2022, there have been rapid developments in the field, with the emergence of AI chatbots, generative AI tools, and more. The OpenAI chatbot kick-started an AI chatbot revolution that has resulted in some of the world’s biggest companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Meta launching their own chatbots. Now, OpenAI could yet again be the first to bring out an AI consumer device, and it is joining hands with former Apple designer Jony Ive as well as Masayoshi Son, the CEO of Softbank, to achieve its goal.

OpenAI’s collaboration with Jony Ive

According to a report by the Financial Times (via MacRumors), Softbank will fund a $1 billion venture to create an AI consumer device, led by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and former Apple designer Jony Ive. Together with Softbank’s CEO Masayoshi Son, they plan to build the “iPhone of artificial intelligence”.

While no specifics about the AI device were revealed, the report stated, “Altman and Ive have held brainstorming sessions at the designer's San Francisco studio about what a new consumer product centered on OpenAI's technology would look like, the people said.” However, everything is still at a discussion stage, and bringing any such product to the market could take years, the report further revealed.

The people involved in the project are looking at how Apple’s innovation in touchscreen technology paved the way for mobile internet and could use that as an inspiration for building a more “intuitive and natural” way of interacting with AI. The process of creating the device could begin with the formation of a new company that would utilize the resources, technology, and manpower of the three companies - Sam Altman’s OpenAI, Jony Ive’s LoveFrom, and Masayoshi Son’s Softbank.

The AI revolution

Big tech companies have been investing more and more in AI. Meta, at its Connect 2023 on September 27, announced several new AI products, including Meta AI, its generative AI voice assistant. It is built using a custom model based on the powerful Llama 2 large language model that the company released for public commercial use in July.

Moreover, Meta has created as many as 28 chatbots, all with unique personalities and backstories. The personalities include celebrities such as Charli D'Amelio, Snoop Dogg, Kendall Jenner, MrBeast, Paris Hilton, and more.