Ex-Apple Industrial Design Chief Jony Ive And OpenAI In Talks With SoftBank To Launch A Device Dubbed The ‘iPhone Of AI’

A secret AI device might be the next big thing for former Apple Chief Design Officer Jony Ive, who is said to have partnered with OpenAI to develop what reports are referring to as the ‘iPhone of Artificial Intelligence.’ To help jumpstart the entire process, Ive is said to be in ‘advanced talks’ with SoftBank concerning a $1 billion venture to take on the bigger giants in the industry.

Jony Ive is said to be having brainstorming sessions with OpenAI’s Sam Altman in a San Francisco studio

Discussions are being done between SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son, Jony Ive, and his design firm ‘LoveFrom’ and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, according to the Financial Times. Though no such deal has materialized, the talks are serious, with massive funding said to be provided by SoftBank if the project gets greenlit. The information in the report talks about developing the ‘iPhone of AI,’ but it does not dive deep into what kind of a consumer-grade product will arrive for the masses. Our guess is that it will likely be integrated with OpenAI’s highly popular chatbot, ChatGPT.

The discussions are said to be held in Ive’s San Francisco studio, with brainstorming sessions being conducted, but there is no confirmation if the unnamed device will end up competing against Apple’s iPhone lineup. It is not necessary that the device ends up being a smartphone, but according to the report, both Jony Ive and Sam Altman want to replicate the iPhone’s multi-touch capabilities that took the world by storm.

Jony Ive was also open to the idea of making a device that users can interact with as a computer but be less reliant on the displays. The sources close to the matter have mentioned that it could take months before any venture is formally created. Even then, a consumer product will not be available after many years. Still, the powerhouse duo of Jony Ive and Sam Altman can certainly make things interesting in the technology and smartphone industry.

Written by Omar Sohail