It could have been Apple

Jony Ive served as Apple’s Chief Design Officer for nearly three decades. He lead the design of products like the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, the MacBooks and the Apple Watch. He left Apple in 2019 and founded the design firm/collective LoveFrom.

Two years ago, Jony Ive and LoveFrom began collaborating with OpenAI’s Sam Altman and his team, because “despite this unprecedented capability [of today’s AI], our experience remains shaped by traditional products and interfaces.” One year ago, Ive explains, “It became clear that our ambitions to develop, engineer and manufacture a new family of products demanded an entirely new company.” So he founded a new company called io.

Today OpenAI announced it’s acquiring io for US$6.5 billion. “As io merges with OpenAI, Jony and LoveFrom will assume deep design and creative responsibilities across OpenAI and io.”

No specifics were given about any product, device, or what they were working on. Only that there is a prototype, which Ive says “it’s the best thing they have ever done” and Altman calls it “the best piece of technology the world will have ever seen.”

These guys are best-of-the-world class in their fields. Both of their teams are extremely talented. Maybe their product will be a complete flop, but if it succeeds, I’m sure it will be disruptive in a way similar to when the iPhone was announced.

Decades ago, Microsoft missed the mobile revolution. A pity Apple has now missed the AI boat. It could have been them.