The media and tech experts are excited to hear that OpenAI’s Sam Altman and former Apple designer Jony Ive have partnered to develop a new AI device. Joining them is Laurene Powell Jobs, wife of Apple founder Steve Jobs, as they have been working for over a year on this project.
Ive confirmed this news in an exclusive interview given to The New York Times published on Saturday. It was during the continuous meeting between Sam Altman and Jony Ive arranged by Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky that the idea for an artificial intelligence model was first formed.
In fact, Ive and Emerson Collective, a firm founded by Powell Jobs, have already been making huge contributions to this project, which is set to reach $1 billion funding by the end of this year. Their office is set up in San Francisco with 10 employees, which includes Tang Tan, the head of the product design team for the iPhone and Apple Watch, and Evans Hankey, who succeeded Ive as Apple’s design chief.
As soon as the news of their collaboration spread worldwide, it attracted wealthy investors such as Microsoft and chip giant Nvidia. Talks of contributing approximately $100 million are already expected, with each company having a high value in the market share.
These companies are not just tech giants but also leading the industries towards transforming workflows, education, healthcare, etc. Needless to say, their collaborative device is going to be groundbreaking with many advanced features and help society become more progressive.
