'iPhone Of AI': OpenAI's Sam Altman, Apple Design Legend Jony Ive And SoftBank's Masayoshi Son Explore A New Venture

OpenAI's chief Sam Altman, former Apple Inc. AAPL design legend Sir Jony Ive, and SoftBank Group Corp.’s SFTBF Masayoshi Son are in advanced talks to build the "iPhone of AI".

What Happened: While a previous report revealed that Altman has tapped Ive's design firm LoveForm to explore developing AI hardware, we now have more details about the goal – recreating the iPhone moment for AI.

See Also: Apple Design Legend Jony Ive, ChatGPT Creator Sam Altman Said To Be Uniting for Mystery AI Project: What Could It Be?

To this end, Altman, Ive, and Son are in advanced talks, according to a report by The Financial Times citing people familiar with the matter.

Recreating the iPhone moment for AI likely won't come cheap, so Altman and Ive are looking to raise $1 billion from SoftBank to launch their new venture.

The idea is simple and could yet prove to be revolutionary. Altman and Ive want to create a more intuitive and natural way to interact with AI.

Essentially, they want to make it as transformative as the original iPhone was for the smartphone industry.

When Apple launched the original iPhone in 2007 with a touchscreen-only experience, the smartphone industry was dominated by bulky phones with physical keys.

Similarly, trying to interact with AI today requires invoking the AI manually, either using text prompts or, now, using voice.

Why It Matters: OpenAI trying to launch a consumer device – likely a smartphone powered by ChatGPT – comes at a time when the Microsoft Corp.-backed MSFT AI firm is seeking a valuation of up to $90 billion.

While this has sparked a series of hilarious posts on X, tapping into the plateauing smartphone industry and kickstarting a new wave of ChatGPT-powered phones could renew consumer interest and also give OpenAI its next revenue stream.

With that said, any consumer device will still likely take years to hit the market.

Image – Shutterstock

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