Paul Stenhouse: Apple's design guru is set to work with OpenAI full time

Published May 24, 2025, 12:12 AM

Johnny Ive, the designer behind the iPod, iMac & iPhone, is going all in with the creators of ChatGPT.

Two years ago he started a company, io, to rethink the computer for the AI-age - which OpenAI was an investor in.

OpenAI has now purchased it for $6.5 billion according to Bloomberg.

Tech commentator Paul Stenhouse says the staff will be joining OpenAI, but Ive won't be.

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Apple's design guru has announced he's going to be working with open Ai full time. Open Ai, of course as the company behind chat GPT, but this is a guy who designed the iPod, the iMac and the iPhone. So our Textbert Paul Steenhouse will have been watching this development with keen interest and is with us now, Paul, why is this such.

A big deal?

Well, because he created the devices that have changed our world, haven't they. And he's just got such a great mind for creating simple products that were really just the light people they work. They Yeah, and that's it. He was Steve jobs right hand man like for all of those products, and he stepped away from Apple quite a few years ago. He actually created a design agency and partnered with some interesting films. I don't think Airbnb was one of his clients along the way. But two years ago he created a company called Io. Now it's kind of a little under the radar. It was actually funded in part by open Ai and then about a quarter share in the company. Yeah, it's been kind of bubbling away under the surface and trying to figure out what the next product could be, right, the next big product could be and how does it incorporate AI? And what's really interesting is open Ai has now said that they're purchasing all of Io for six point five billion dollars according to Bloomberg, not a not a small amount of cash, right, but with that sort of money, you'd be thinking, okay, So that means that Johnny Ive's going to be joining open Ai as a full time staff member. But here's where it's weird. He's not okay, But everybody else who's working on io is so effectively church gpt open Ai. They're going to be getting now this new product that they're going to be releasing, they're saying next year that they want to ship to one hundred million users on day one. Wow, mind blowing. But Johnny Ive is not going to be joining an opening eye full time. He's going to be kind of almost like contracting I think through his company his agency, right, which I just found was really weird. If you've put a six point five billion dollar price tag, wouldn't you think that like he'd be employee number whatever and you know, your chief design officer. But no, he'll just be working full time with them. And I think it's it's certainly raddlesome people. And you know that because the Apple share price fell two percent on the news, and when you're a harmony trillion dollar company, that is a rather large amount of money. Because if Apple's not creating this product, who is, Well, it very well could be him. But he's interesting product, that's it.

That's it. What is he making?

Yeah, and we don't know that yet. No details have been released about this at all, but it's said to not be the iPhone killer. It's supposed to be sitting beside your MacBook beside your iPhone. The idea is that it will be a third device. Sam Oltman, the CEO, kind of said, so it's probably going to be a wearable but apparently Sam Moltman isn't too interested in wearables. But I kind of don't know what else is going to be, Yeah, short of a kind of more sophisticated paper paperweight that sits on your desk, but it may very well. I mean, it needs a connection to the internet most likely, right, So it's probably going to be through your iPhone or through your computer or something along those lines, I guess, But no, no one knows anything about it. Of course the Internet's like tried to guess and are thinking of a few things, but no, we know nothing about it. But we just know that they want to go big and they've got the design brain of what this passed?

Yeah interesting a few decades to be alongside them very quickly, Paul, So that's opened my eyes side of things. Google has revealed its new products for twenty twenty five.

Yeah, so they had their big conference and three things that stood out to me, Jack. Android is getting smart glasses. So we don't know much about this apartment. It's called Project Aura, but they're going to deliver what they're calling mixed reality through those smart classes. So imagine it's kind of augmented reality, right because they're coming equipped with microphones, cameras. Their Gemini AI integration is the thing as well, so I guess you'll be able to do the translate stuff and the what is that thing? All that kind of stuff. Google Shopping is going to get a new feature where it will let you try on an outfit using AI, so you take a full body photo of yourself, and Google says that it's figured out the AI to work out human bodies, the nuances of clothing fabric, how they fold, stretch, drape all of that kind of stuff and you'll be able to see what you'll look like in an outfit. Sounds pretty interesting. And Gmail's smart replies are getting even smarter. They're going to start looking at other emails that you've received or as sending it will know who's been sending it to you. So maybe the tone you send an email back to your boss will be a little bit different than the yol what up that you send to your friends. It's going to have access to your Google Drive too, So I thought those are three things that are kind of interesting. But they had a stack of announcements obviously very AI RELI today.

Yeah, of course, Hey, thanks Paul, appreciate it as always cool. Paul Steinhouse is our textbook.

For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, Listen live to News Talks ed B from nine am Saturday, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.

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