iPhone designer and ChatGPT creator looking for $1 billion to build new ‘personal device’, report claims

(Getty Images)

Two men who helped build the iPhone and ChatGPT are looking for funding to build the personal device that could combine the two, according to a new report.

Jony Ive, a former design lead at Apple who created many of its most famous products, is working with OpenAI boss Sam Altman to find funding for a new company that would create a personal device powered by artificial intelligence, according to a new report in The Information.

The precise form and function of the device remains mysterious. But it will not look like existing smartphones, sourced told the online publication.

It comes as other companies attempt to build new hardware products around artificial intelligence capabilities. They include the Humane AI pin – which attaches to its wearer and allows them to talk to it – as well as the Rabbit R1, which puts AI into a small gadget.

Proponents argue that artificial intelligence will bring new ways of interacting with devices that could allow them to do away with screens. Users will not need to look at a map and press buttons to hail a cab, for instance, but could just ask a virtual assistant to do it for them.

Mr Ive and Mr Altman have long been rumoured to be working on a new project that would bring one such model, presumably using OpenAI’s artificial intelligence.

They are in talks with investors including Thrive Capital, which has invested in OpenAI, as well as another investment firm founded by Laurene Powell Jobs, the billionaire founder and president of Emerson Collective and Steve Jobs’ widow.

Previous reports have suggested that SoftBank could also be involved in funding the new venture.

Jony Ive left Apple in 2019, though he continued to work with it for some time after. The new device might compete with the iPhone: reports have suggested that Apple is investing heavily into artificial intelligence, and that it could gain new AI-powered capabilities at this summer’s Worldwide Developers Conference.