Nearly six months after OpenAI’s acquisition of the startup io (founded by Jony Ive and several former star Apple designers) for over six billion dollars, Sam Altman and Jony Ive have lifted the veil on their most secret project.
A few weeks ago, we mentioned on Yiaho that OpenAI was considering entering the hardware space. Since then, we’ve learned more, even though the exact product that will be presented remains unknown.
Sam Altman and Jony Ive: A few revelations about their physical product
During a public conversation with Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve Jobs’ widow, the two men confirmed that the design of their first shared hardware device is now finalized and that working prototypes already exist.
Sam Altman was particularly enthusiastic, a feeling that Jony Ive says he shares without hesitation.
For his part, Apple’s former chief designer (who created the translucent iMac, iPod, iPhone, and Apple Watch) emphasized his usual philosophy: objects of almost disarming simplicity, light, joyful, that you handle without thinking and that never try to impress with their apparent complexity. “I love when sophistication is so well hidden that it feels almost naive,” he summarized.
OpenAI yes, but what product?
As for the exact nature of the device, the mystery remains complete!
Speculation has been running wild for two years:
- A new type of remote screen?
- Smart glasses without lenses?
- A physical assistant that would replace both the phone and the smart speaker?
- A completely new interface for interacting with OpenAI’s large models?
Sam Altman and Ive still refuse to say more, simply smiling at questions. Here’s the interview available on YouTube:
When?
The only certainty: the timeline is accelerating. Jony Ive stated that the device could be released “in less than two years.” By the end of 2027 at the latest, or possibly sooner. An extremely short timeframe for such an ambitious product, especially considering the team brings together some of the best designers and engineers who worked on Apple’s most iconic products.
This project is seen as one of the biggest attempts to reinvent personal computing since the iPhone. OpenAI, which has already disrupted the software world with ChatGPT, now wants to impose its vision in hardware, with the help of the person who has probably most influenced consumer design over the past thirty years.
Whether the world is ready to give up its smartphone for something radically different… or if, on the contrary, this device will finally make artificial intelligence as natural and everyday as a set of keys. Answer in less than 730 days!
