With Jony Ive, OpenAI bets on a world beyond the smartphone
OpenAI likely needs more than software to survive. The deal with the former Apple design kingpin is a high-stakes gamble on hardware and long-term relevance.
It’s fair to say that the world has been living in an artificial intelligence moment since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022. The staggering user numbers and the sheer scale of investment the generative AI platform has attracted certainly reflect that reality.
But most consumers would struggle to point to how fundamentally their technological landscape has changed since then. We still use the same computers, the same smartphones, the same websites. The revolution remains largely invisible — powerful, but confined to chatbots rather than truly reshaping our relationship with technology.
This morning, OpenAI announced it would acquire former Apple design chief Jony Ive's startup 'io' in a US$6.4 billion ($10.1 billion) all-stock deal. The objective isn't subtle: create the definitive family of devices for the AI era and potentially dethrone the smartphone as the centre of our digital lives.
Ive is arguably the most influential designer in modern technology history. His fingerprints are on everything from the iPod and iPhone to the MacBook and Apple Watch, designs so iconic they've spawned countless imitators across the global tech landscape. His aesthetic sensibilities have defined what "good technology" feels like for a generation of consumers.
