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Ive & Altman's AI Hardware
It has recently been in the news that Jony Ive is working with OpenAI's Sam Altman on an AI hardware venture. While not many details about the project have been made public, for Apple enthusiasts such as myself, this is a very interesting development in the world of tech.
Ive was instrumental in making Apple one of the most successful companies of all time. He was largely responsible for the design of many of the revolutionary products that Apple released over the years, including the iPod, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. He also played a significant role in Apple's software UI designs. Ive was a close friend of Steve Jobs. The two shared similar philosophies when it came to design and often spent long hours together conceptualizing and shaping products. While Jobs was CEO he afforded Ive more autonomy than anyone else at Apple. It is largely thanks to this collaboration that Apple became the massive success that it is today. Seeing a computing device as a piece of art is ultimately what differentiated Apple from other computer companies.
AI hardware has been a concept that has already been tried in the past couple of years by a handful of companies. None of the current offerings have been very successful. The problem so far seems to be that the need for such a device is not well established. Smart phones are still the most relevant devices in personal computing, and they provide access to many of the best generative AI models. In order for an AI hardware device to find its niche, it will need to provide a user with something fundamentally different than what a smart phone offers. At the moment, this sounds like a challenging proposal. But with someone like Ive at the helm, and Sam Altman's money behind it, I look forward to seeing what comes out of this interesting collaboration.
10-02-24 @ 7:12:36 AM