Jony Ive hires ex-Apple design lead for OpenAI project

AppleInsider

Departing Apple iPhone design head Tang Tan is to work for Jony Ive on designing new AI hardware devices for OpenAI.

Jony Ive

It was announced that Tang Tan would be leaving Apple in February 2024, but his duties have already been divided up and he is now reportedly joining Jony Ive's LoveFrom firm. He is to work specifically on LoveFrom's collaboration with OpenAI for a new AI hardware project.

According to Bloomberg, the veteran Apple designer will lead the project's hardware engineering. The publication says that projects currently being considered include devices for the home, though neither OpenAI nor LoveFrom would comment.

It's believed that the LoveFrom and OpenAI collaboration is at an early stage of developing concepts, and also hiring key staff to work on them.

Educated at MIT and Imperial College London, Tan lead the design teams for the iPhone and the Apple Watch. His long experience at Apple includes multiple patents, including a 2010 one regarding the steel bezel design of the iPhone.

Tan is only the latest designer to be poached from Apple by LoveFrom. In 2021, Ive's company hired away four designers, ranging across hardware and software.

Ive himself represented the last of Apple's famous design team that had worked on everything from the iMac through the iPhone and iPad.



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danox

Good Luck Open AI fate will be the same as Linux.

ctt_zh

danox said:

Good Luck Open AI fate will be the same as Linux.

Agreed. I think like Linux OpenAI will be incredibly successful. 

9secondkox2

I don’t know. That’s QUITE the team so far. 

Could be the next big deal. 

I wouldn’t dismiss it. 

Apple should just get over themselves and lock up an exclusive consultancy with LoveFrom. It’s obvious the real talented designers really like to work with jony. 

hypoluxa

9secondkox2 said:

I don’t know. That’s QUITE the team so far. 

Could be the next big deal. 

I wouldn’t dismiss it. 

Apple should just get over themselves and lock up an exclusive consultancy with LoveFrom. It’s obvious the real talented designers really like to work with jony. 

Yep. I'd 2nd that thought.  But they do sometimes fall flat with form over function.

Marvin

9secondkox2 said:

I don’t know. That’s QUITE the team so far. 

Could be the next big deal. 

I wouldn’t dismiss it. 

Apple should just get over themselves and lock up an exclusive consultancy with LoveFrom. It’s obvious the real talented designers really like to work with jony. 

The same could be said of Humane, they have a lot of ex-Apple people:

https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/08/humane-the-secretive-ai-startup-founded-by-ex-apple-employees-raises-another-100m/

"dozens of decorated ex-Apple employees responsible for the iPhone’s touchscreen keyboard, elements of Apple’s industrial design and infrastructure for Apple services like iCloud, Apple Pay and Home. Chaudhri himself spearheaded the design of the iPhone’s home screen, while Bongiorno helped to lead software development for iPhone, iPad and later the Mac."

They made a $700 AI pin:

https://www.wired.com/story/humane-ai-pin-700-dollar-smartphone-alternative-wearable/

This functionality can be done with the Apple Watch in a much more widely appealing form factor. They won't ship 50 million AI devices per year like Apple does with the watch and without selfies, games, video calls, social media, mobile internet, it won't replace the smartphone.

Making new designs is obviously appealing to designers who have been on conveyer belt level tech for years but making something new that becomes a retail success is very difficult, even for people with years of experience. Movie directors don't make guaranteed hits, no matter how long they've been doing it.

blastdoor

hypoluxa said:

9secondkox2 said:

I don’t know. That’s QUITE the team so far. 

Could be the next big deal. 

I wouldn’t dismiss it. 

Apple should just get over themselves and lock up an exclusive consultancy with LoveFrom. It’s obvious the real talented designers really like to work with jony. 

Yep. I'd 2nd that thought.  But they do sometimes fall flat with form over function.

Agreed. Two notable changes since Ive left: 
1. thicker iPhones (bigger battery)
2. Mac Studio (more usable ports)

I think these are changes for the good, but I have to admit that those crazy thin iPhones were kind of amazing.

timmillea

The context is that Steve Jobs gave Jony Ive 'god-like' status within Apple to do whatever he wanted in any department. Tim Cook, a logistics man, bore a long-held resentment and, after a dignified pause after Job's death, sacked Ive. It would be no surprise if, after Cook's imminent retirement, Apple buys LoveFrom and, Jobs-resurrection style, Ive become the new CEO of Apple, which he may should have been instead of Cook. 

timmillea

blastdoor said:

hypoluxa said:

9secondkox2 said:

I don’t know. That’s QUITE the team so far. 

Could be the next big deal. 

I wouldn’t dismiss it. 

Apple should just get over themselves and lock up an exclusive consultancy with LoveFrom. It’s obvious the real talented designers really like to work with jony. 

Yep. I'd 2nd that thought.  But they do sometimes fall flat with form over function.

Agreed. Two notable changes since Ive left: 
1. thicker iPhones (bigger battery)
2. Mac Studio (more usable ports)

I think these are changes for the good, but I have to admit that those crazy thin iPhones were kind of amazing.

I vehemently disagree. Who wants a fat phone? The Mac Studio is a hideous monstrosity - an embarrassment. The concentration should be on uniting form and function to the absolute limit of future technology. Apple has lost its way since Ive departed.

nubus

Having decorated ex-Apple people is often the first step to disaster. General Magic... all the best people from the Mac-team. Taligent... same story. Ron Johnson established the Apple Store concept and then became CEO for JCPenney where he pretty much killed the company.

True, Android was created by an ex-Apple employee, but Andy Rubin wasn't a senior employee at Apple.

Marvin

timmillea said:

The context is that Steve Jobs gave Jony Ive 'god-like' status within Apple to do whatever he wanted in any department. Tim Cook, a logistics man, bore a long-held resentment and, after a dignified pause after Job's death, sacked Ive. It would be no surprise if, after Cook's imminent retirement, Apple buys LoveFrom and, Jobs-resurrection style, Ive become the new CEO of Apple, which he may should have been instead of Cook. 

Tim didn't fire Ive, they both described Jony leaving in an interview:

https://www.ft.com/content/947e557a-98a8-11e9-8cfb-30c211dcd229

Jony Ive said he was frustrated about finance people taking more control and gradually became less involved in the product decisions.

When Tim Cook is ready to retire (not imminently), Ive will be 63 and definitely won't be eager to be getting out of bed at 4am to run the largest company in the world, dealing with supply chain issues, internal politics of over 100k employees and money-driven investors and board members and not having any time to do industrial design work.

He's a billionaire with all the resources and control he needs to do his own thing. Running his own company is ideal for him and allows him to design for multiple companies, which he could never do at Apple.

This setup is also a way Jony can design secret projects and if they turn out well, Apple can easily manufacture them at scale and market them under the Apple brand.