There may be a breakthrough in artificial intelligence interaction
Apple’s former design chief Jony Ive is reportedly in talks with OpenAI to build the “iPhone of artificial intelligence,” backed by over $1 billion in funding from Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son. According to a new report by the Financial Times, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wants to use Ive’s design firm LoveFrom to develop the company’s first consumer device, and the pair are brainstorming the idea.
Ive and Altman aim to create a device that provides a “more natural and intuitive user experience” for interacting with artificial intelligence, according to people with knowledge of the plans. It is stated that they were inspired by how the touch screen technology in the first iPhone revolutionized our interaction with the mobile internet. At the same time, Masayoshi Son is reportedly offering funding for this project and pushing for chip design company Arm (in which Son owns a 90 percent stake) to play a central role.
According to sources, the project with OpenAI could enable Ive to help create an interactive computing device that is less dependent on screens. Altman already has experience in this regard, thanks to his investments in a hardware and software startup called Humane, which was founded by former Apple employees and is developing a screenless wearable AI device designed to replace smartphones.
Altman, Ive and Son’s project is still in its infancy, and several different ideas for the device are currently being evaluated. So while no design-level idea has been agreed upon and details surrounding the project are thin, talks are said to be “serious.”