He brought Apple’s hardware design to new heights — could Jony Ive do the same for the burgeoning market for AI-focussed hardware?
That’s the hope for Ive’s next project, which will see the veteran designer team up with ChatGPT developer OpenAI for a new hardware device leveraging the company’s fast-growing artificial intelligence products.
The partnership — rumored earlier this year — has now been confirmed in a New York Times profile
The pair have agreed to partner on a new “artificial intelligence device company” for a product “that uses AI to create a computing experience that is less socially disruptive than the iPhone,” according to the article. Not that Apple itself is averse to AI integrations — the latest iOS 18
But iPhones, including the brand new iPhone 16 iPhone 16 Pro
A device revolution to come?
Ive’s project won’t be the first to try to make a bespoke, built-for-purpose AI hardware design. But early forays into the market have been mixed at best.
The Rabbit R1 released earlier this year, and charmed with its cutesy phone-like design. But its actual usefulness, swapping out traditional apps for generative AI responses, proved clunky. Likewise, the Humane AI pin launched to great hype, but soon fell flat of the limitations its wearable form factor presented.
But if anyone can create an AI device form factor that actually works, it’s Ive. His meticulous attention to detail has been hugely influential in the world of tech, revolutionizing computing device design. If his focus was ever in question, take this secondary snippet from the article: he’s just spent five years working on a book about the history of buttons.
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