OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has confirmed his collaboration with former Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) design chief Jony Ive on a new AI-driven hardware project. The news, initially reported by The Information in September last year, was later corroborated by Ive in a New York Times profile.
The project, which has been the subject of much speculation, is not a smartphone. Altman, speaking at an OpenAI event during the UN General Assembly in New York, stated, “I don’t think you should try to do a better phone.”
He emphasized that the project is still in its early stages, noting that it’s “a long way away” from completion.
Altman and Ive met through Airbnb (Nasdaq: ABNB) CEO Brian Chesky, who set it up last year. The two met several more times over dinner to discuss the potential of a new AI-centered computing device before agreeing to build it together. Ive’s design firm, LoveFrom, which he founded in 2019 after leaving Apple, is involved in the project.
The startup has been raising funds privately, with investments from both Ive and Emerson Collective, a firm founded by Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. According to reports, the venture is on track to raise up to $1 billion in startup funding by the end of this year.
While details about the product remain scarce, Marc Newson, co-founder of LoveFrom, told The New York Times that they are still in the process of figuring out the product and its release date.
This project is not the only AI-centric device in development. Former Apple employees Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno launched their AI startup, Humane, in 2019 and released their first product, the Ai Pin, in November. However, the pin received mixed reviews upon its release.
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