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OpenAI on Wednesday announced the $6.5 billion acquisition of io, a technology design company founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, reinvigorating rumors that the company is looking to produce an AI-centric smartphone.
Best known for helping design Apple's iPhone, Ive and 55 other employees coming over from io will take over creative and design oversight across the entirety of OpenAI. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, this will include having a design hand in everything from "future versions of ChatGPT to audio features, its app and other products, according to people familiar with the matter."
Founded after Ive left Apple in 2019, io's original intention was to develop a new line of AI-powered products. The marriage of OpenAI and io has been rumored to center around a new screenless smartphone. Last month, io denied that a phone was in the works, while OpenAI did not comment.
The Wall Street Journal noted in its report that "people familiar with the matter" have claimed that the partnership is working towards "a new device that will move consumers beyond screens."
OpenAI and Ive have reportedly been partnering on an unrevealed line of products for the past two years, with devices beyond a phone also under consideration.
"I have a growing sense that everything I have learned over the last 30 years has led me to this moment," Ive said in an official statement about the acquisition.
Whether this rumored screen-free smartphone can find purchase in the modern landscape remains to be seen. It's hard to imagine today's consumers embracing a phone without the ability to view, say, TikTok videos, and while there has been a recent movement of folks towards less distracting "dumb" phones, those folks don't seem like the type that would want something heavily geared towards AI.
A representative for OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
