Apple's Legendary Designer Jony Ive Teams Up with AI Visionary Sam Altman on Mysterious New Gadget

Two of Silicon Valley's most influential innovators are joining forces to develop new hardware for the artificial intelligence age.

Jony Ive, Apple's former chief design officer who shaped the iconic look and feel of products like the iPhone and iMac, is in talks with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to collaborate on an unspecified AI device, according to two sources speaking to The Information. The two visionaries are close friends and have reportedly been exploring what “new hardware for the AI age could look like.”

While details remain scarce, this pairing of legendary design and cutting-edge AI has the tech world buzzing with possibilities.

Ive departed Apple in 2019 after nearly 30 years to start his own design firm, LoveFrom. He is best known for pioneering Apple's signature minimalist aesthetic and obsessive attention to detail, which led to groundbreaking and beloved devices like the iPod, iPad, Apple Watch and AirPods. His impeccable taste and craftsmanship instilled Apple products with a seamless integration of hardware and software that became the company's trademark.

Altman, an entrepreneur and investor, co-founded OpenAI in 2015 alongside Elon Musk with the mission of building safe artificial general intelligence (AGI) that benefits humanity. As CEO, he has led OpenAI's development of large AI models like GPT-3 and DALL-E that display increasingly sophisticated language and image generation abilities.

While OpenAI captured headlines with its viral chatbot ChatGPT and image generator DALL-E 2, Altman aims higher - to create AI as flexible and multipurpose as the human brain. A gadget that meshes OpenAI's algorithms with Ive's design instincts could allow people to interact with advanced AI in a more natural, intuitive way.

This wouldn't be the first time Altman has joined forces with former Apple talent to build new hardware. He recently collaborated with Thomas Meyerhoffer, an early Apple designer mentored by Ive, to create Orb - a spherical retina scanner for Altman's Worldcoin cryptocurrency project.

Meyerhoffer was Ive's first hire at Apple in the late 1990s and worked closely with him on groundbreaking products including the original iMac. At Tools for Humanity, a company Altman co-founded and chairs, Meyerhoffer designed the striking Orb device which maps users' unique iris patterns to verify their identity and distribute digital coins.

This novel device demonstrates Altman's knack for integrating advanced technology into distinctive objects - a skill he likely aims to replicate with Ive on their mystery AI project.

Altman also has close ties to Humane, a hardware startup founded by former Apple engineers building a wearable device to replace the smartphone. Humane has partnered with OpenAI to power many of the gadget's capabilities with AI.

Major investor SoftBank, led by CEO Masayoshi Son, is reportedly participating in the Ive-Altman discussions as well. Son has aggressively backed AI startups in recent years, vowing to position SoftBank as a leader in the "AI revolution." If Son remains involved, he could provide substantial financial resources to turn Ive and Altman's vision into reality.

But what exactly might that vision entail? Here are some possibilities:

**A Reinvented Personal Assistant**

Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa have familiarized consumers with AI assistants. But neither has achieved the seamless conversational ability we expect from science fiction.

An Ive-designed intelligent speaker powered by OpenAI's natural language algorithms could leapfrog existing devices. With Ive's taste for simplicity and clarity, it may remove the "uncanny valley" effect of current assistants by focusing on core functionality over gimmicks.

**Next-Generation AI Glasses**

Google Glass flopped, but Apple is rumored to be developing augmented reality glasses of its own. Bringing Ive's elegant touch to smart glasses could finally make them fashionable and unobtrusive. Integration with OpenAI cognition APIs would enable alerts, translations and more right before your eyes.

**A New Breed of Robot**

OpenAI's humanoid robot technology is still in the early research stage. But its breakthroughs in dexterous robot hands could form the basis of a consumer robot shaped by Ive's brand of approachable sophistication. Picture an elegant machine capable of tidying up around the house or serving drinks at parties.

**Revolutionary Brain-Computer Interface**

Facebook and Neuralink aim to develop non-invasive devices that allow humans to control computers with their mind. Ive and Altman's mysterious project could take things further, using OpenAI's capabilities for two-way human-AI thought communication. A sleek wearable or implant could make telepathy a reality.

Of course, Ive and Altman's plans remain highly confidential for now. But the possibilities are endless when two of tech's greatest visionaries join forces at the dawn of the artificial intelligence era.

Whatever form it takes, this collaboration seems destined to yield a device that feels years ahead of its time in both intelligence and design. The world eagerly awaits the first glimpse of the fruit borne by this tech dream team.

For Jony Ive, it represents the opportunity to recapture the magic of his Apple days, when he helped conjure products straight out of science fiction. His flair for fusing hardware and software could introduce AI into people's lives in a more intimate, empowering way.

And for Altman, pairing OpenAI's algorithms with Ive's intuitive devices may allow him to reach his ambitious goal of embedding AI safely and beneficially into our everyday lives. If this project succeeds, it could drive mainstream adoption of AI in a thoughtful, ethical manner.

Of course, some of Ive's Apple creations were initially mocked and misunderstood, only to become indispensable and beloved. The iPhone was a punchline on primetime TV before it revolutionized society. Only Ive's inner circle knows if his latest creation with Altman may have a similar impact.

But one thing is certain - the union of these two brilliant minds has tech enthusiasts dreaming big. Rumors will continue swirling until Ive and Altman unveil whatever groundbreaking device emerges from this alliance. Given their pedigrees, it's sure to be something special.

The world eagerly awaits a glimpse of the future.