Former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive and Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook inspect the iPhone XR at an event in 2018 in Cupertino, California. Getty Images
Former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive and Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook inspect the iPhone XR at an event in 2018 in Cupertino, California. Getty Images
Former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive and Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook inspect the iPhone XR at an event in 2018 in Cupertino, California. Getty Images
Former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive and Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook inspect the iPhone XR at an event in 2018 in Cupertino, California. Getty Images

Former Apple designer Jony Ive in talks with ChatGPT creator to build 'iPhone of AI'


  • English
  • Arabic

OpenAI, the maker of generative AI platform ChatGPT, is in advanced talks with former Apple design chief Jony Ive and SoftBank Group chief executive Masayoshi Son to create the “iPhone of artificial intelligence”.

Development of the product will be bankrolled by $1 billion from the Japanese investment holding company, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing sources.

Terms of the potential investment, as well as the timeline for the development of the product, remain unclear.

Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, tapped design studio LoveFrom, which Mr Ive started after stepping down from his high-profile role as Apple's chief design officer in 2019.

The Information this week had also reported some aspects of the product discussions.

Mr Altman and Mr Ive have held talks at the San Francisco-based studio on how the product would look and how OpenAI's technology would fit in it, the sources said.

They are looking at creating a product that is “more natural and intuitive” for users, allowing a seamless experience when interacting with AI, they said.

The iPhone was groundbreaking and pioneered a new market for mobile devices, having removed the physical keyboard in favour of an all-touch interface.

The type of device to be created and its design remain at an early stage, with many different ideas and options being considered, the sources said.

Smartphones have revolutionised mobile communications and advancements have made them even more powerful and useful. However, the industry has been stagnating, with shipments set to drop to their lowest levels in a decade, Counterpoint Research said last month.

Having a new and unique product could help revive the market, and could challenge the dominance of Apple and Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest mobile phone manufacturer, as well as other mainstays.

The grand designs of Jonny Ive

Mr Ive being on board OpenAI's project would be a huge boost for its consumer device plans.

Mr Ive was a close creative collaborator with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

He spent more than two decades at the tech company and led the design of the coloured iMacs that helped Apple re-emerge from near death in the 1990s as well as the design of the iPhone.

Mr Ive also had a hand in designing parts of the iOS user interface, as well as buildings including the company's Apple Park headquarters in California and Apple Stores.

He left Apple in 2019 and co-founded design firm LoveFrom with fellow designer Marc Newson. LoveFrom, which describes itself as a “creative collective”, has clients such as Airbnb and Ferrari.

Tokyo-based SoftBank, meanwhile, is a major player in technology investment.

The company and its tech-focused Vision Fund have made nearly 160 investments, data from CB Insights shows.

Among the companies in SoftBank's investment portfolio are China's Alibaba Group, chipmakers Nvidia and Arm, Uber Technologies, TikTok parent ByteDance and Indian e-commerce platform Flipkart.

SoftBank has been looking for deals in AI, including a potential investment in OpenAI, after the blockbuster listing of its Arm unit, the FT reported earlier this month, adding that Mr Son was looking to invest tens of billions of dollars in the technology.

The success of OpenAI, the parent company of the wildly popular chatbot ChatGPT, has prompted companies such as Microsoft and Alphabet to pour billions of dollars into investing in the technology.

The specs

Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo

Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm

Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm

Transmission: 9-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km

On sale: Now

Price: From Dh117,059

David Haye record

Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
MATCH INFO

Uefa Champioons League semi-final:

First leg: Liverpool 5 Roma 2

Second leg: Wednesday, May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome

TV: BeIN Sports, 10.45pm (UAE)

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

UAE v Gibraltar

What: International friendly

When: 7pm kick off

Where: Rugby Park, Dubai Sports City

Admission: Free

Online: The match will be broadcast live on Dubai Exiles’ Facebook page

UAE squad: Lucas Waddington (Dubai Exiles), Gio Fourie (Exiles), Craig Nutt (Abu Dhabi Harlequins), Phil Brady (Harlequins), Daniel Perry (Dubai Hurricanes), Esekaia Dranibota (Harlequins), Matt Mills (Exiles), Jaen Botes (Exiles), Kristian Stinson (Exiles), Murray Reason (Abu Dhabi Saracens), Dave Knight (Hurricanes), Ross Samson (Jebel Ali Dragons), DuRandt Gerber (Exiles), Saki Naisau (Dragons), Andrew Powell (Hurricanes), Emosi Vacanau (Harlequins), Niko Volavola (Dragons), Matt Richards (Dragons), Luke Stevenson (Harlequins), Josh Ives (Dubai Sports City Eagles), Sean Stevens (Saracens), Thinus Steyn (Exiles)

Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
  • Priority access to new homes from participating developers
  • Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
  • Flexible payment plans from developers
  • Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
  • DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
The more serious side of specialty coffee

While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.

The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.

Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”

One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.

Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms. 

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Updated: September 28, 2023, 11:27 AM`