According to The Information, Ive has been in discussions with Altman about developing a new AI device. It’s unclear what the purpose of this device will be or what it will look like at this stage, but insiders familiar with the discussions say they want to create “new hardware for the age of AI.”
Interestingly, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, who is also a recognized investor, is said to be involved in the discussions between Jony Ive and Altman. According to the study, OpenAI has already received $11 billion from high-profile investors such as Khosla Ventures and Microsoft.
OpenAI is the creator of the popular ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot that can answer queries, create articles, and even code. After integrating ChatGPT with its own software, Microsoft, for example, invested in OpenAI. At the same time, Apple has been working on a ChatGPT competitor internally.
Rumour has it that the “Apple GPT” is an AI chatbot that uses several machine learning projects on a shared foundation. However, according to a Bloomberg article, the corporation explored entering into a commercial partnership to employ OpenAI’s technologies after conducting experiments with its own AI technology.
It would be fascinating to see Jony Ive working on a technology that would later be rivalled or licensed by Apple.