Jony Ive is now looking for funding to jump on the AI development train

AppleInsider · April 6, 2024 12:20AM

Former Apple head designer Jony Ive is looking for big money from known artificial intelligence venture capitalists to build his mysterious assistant product.

A report on Friday again links Jony Ive with Open AI funding source Thrive Capital, and newly connects Laurene Powell-Jobs' Emerson collective to the effort. According to sources, Ive is looking for $1 billion in funding to get the effort off the ground.

This is not the first time that Ive has been connected to an AI peripheral of some sort. In September, Ive was linked with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son to make

Friday's report from The Information sheds no new light on what Ive is looking to accomplish. Previous reports claimed that Ive had having brainstorming sessions at his San Francisco studio with OpenAI's Sam Altman. Thosse sessions were said to have been centered on what a new consumer product with OpenAI technology could do, and could look like.

As is typical, nobody the publication reached out to had any comment on the matter.

In the long run, the effort is likely to put Ive at loggerheads with Apple. Ive left Apple in 2019 to create his own independent design consultancy, LoveFrom, following nearly three decades at the company.

While going independent has given Ive the chance to work with other companies, the firm he founded was still connected to Apple for a time.

For example, in May 2021, it was reported that Ive had worked on the 24-inch iMac, a major redesign of the desktop Mac. However, due to the typically long development process for hardware designs, it's plausible that Ive was still employed at Apple at the time of his involvement, rather than it being work carried out as part of LoveFrom.

In 2022, reports circulated that Ive was no longer consulting with Apple.

Apple hasn't been standing still on the AI front. As it stands now, machine learning and artificial intelligence routines span nearly every aspect of Apple's hardware and services.

CEO Tim Cook has said that the company will have announcements before the end of 2024. In an X post shortly after the official announcement of WWDC 2024, Greg Joswiak made a post promoting the WWDC news.

The Apple SVP of Marketing's post tells developers to "Mark your calendars for #WWDC24," confirming both the date and the official hashtag for the event.

"Joz" then follows up with the declaration "It's going to be Absolutely Incredible!" Joswiak's post does include a hint, but it doesn't require an Enigma machine to work out the capitalized "Absolutely Incredible" refers to AI.

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paisleydisco · April 6, 2024 1:05AM

LOLOLOLOLOL

the rich guy looking for a handout

canukstorm · April 6, 2024 2:18AM

paisleydisco said:

LOLOLOLOLOL

the rich guy looking for a handout

That's the secret to getting rich => with other people's money, not your own.

dewme · April 6, 2024 3:20AM

With Jony’s penchant for minimalism his AI assistant will probably only provide single word answers, like Yes, No, Maybe, Correct, Wrong, Really?, etc. It’ll be like 20 questions, but typically require anywhere from 25-300 questions plus a lot of hours of research or consultation with other AI assistants for you to converge on an answer, at which point you will have actually figured it out yourself.

At that point you’ll earn a one word reward, like Congratulations, plus 5% off coupon to purchase an 18 caret gold version of his now famous red nose, Nose Gold Edition, which will retail around $14,999 USD.

jdw · April 6, 2024 3:35AM

paisleydisco said:

LOLOLOLOLOL

the rich guy looking for a handout

Sorry but Canstorm's reply to you was spot on. No doubt you have refused to purchase any AAPL stock too. I first bought AAPL in 1999 when Steve Jobs was back, the stock was rising a little, because I believed in the company since 1984, and because I said to myself, "why the heck not?" I've never sold a single share. I was not wealthy, nor did I come from a wealthy family. Ever dollar in my possession at the time mattered to me. Yet I chose to invest a little anyway. Glad I did.

It never ceases to shock and amaze me how people who deliberately refuse to become financially savvy are the first to chastise anyone and everyone they deem rich, who in reality is anyone a tiny bit wealthier than themselves.

Here's some great advice...

Stop criticizing everyone, even truly bad people. Take charge of your own life. Follow the lead of those who have become a success even if you don't know them personally. Don't let failure stop you because you will fail. Keep going. One day, you will be pleasantly surprised with your nest egg, and your kindness in not criticizing others will be a shining beacon to all around you.

Kierkegaarden · April 6, 2024 4:33AM

I’m not sure what this could possibly be. I also don’t see anyone wanting to carry around a separate device from their phone, unless such a device to meant to replace the phone.

Bigger question — are consumers as excited about AI as much as the companies promoting it?

humbug1873 · April 6, 2024 6:38AM

So the looks will be brilliant but it won't work.

GrannySmith99 · April 6, 2024 8:17AM

jdw said:

paisleydisco said:

LOLOLOLOLOL

the rich guy looking for a handout

Sorry but Canstorm's reply to you was spot on. No doubt you have refused to purchase any AAPL stock too. I first bought AAPL in 1999 when Steve Jobs was back, the stock was rising a little, because I believed in the company since 1984, and because I said to myself, "why the heck not?" I've never sold a single share. I was not wealthy, nor did I come from a wealthy family. Ever dollar in my possession at the time mattered to me. Yet I chose to invest a little anyway. Glad I did.

It never ceases to shock and amaze me how people who deliberately refuse to become financially savvy are the first to chastise anyone and everyone they deem rich, who in reality is anyone a tiny bit wealthier than themselves.

Here's some great advice...

Stop criticizing everyone, even truly bad people. Take charge of your own life. Follow the lead of those who have become a success even if you don't know them personally. Don't let failure stop you because you will fail. Keep going. One day, you will be pleasantly surprised with your nest egg, and your kindness in not criticizing others will be a shining beacon to all around you.

Amazingly said JDW! Spot on and a great philosophy for life.

GrannySmith99 · April 6, 2024 8:19AM

The amount of grammatical mistakes in this article is high even for AI standards! Was it rushed out?

nubus · April 6, 2024 8:19AM

Tired of Ive. The original iMac and eMate 300 were fantastic and joyful (except for the stupid puck mouse). iPod was either paying homage to or a blatant rip-off on the works of Dieter Rams, and from there he went full Wegovy making devices thin to the point of unusable butterfly keyboards and a mouse that can't be used while charging.

I do hope Apple will let Beats make more interesting versions of their products. We have seen 25 years of TiBook design and the iPhone 15 Pro looks like the iPhone 4. Coke bottles and Lego blocks don't change much either. I just feel there could be new designs, colors, materials,...

ravnorodom · April 6, 2024 9:17AM

dewme said:

With Jony’s penchant for minimalism his AI assistant will probably only provide single word answers, like Yes, No, Maybe, Correct, Wrong, Really?, etc. It’ll be like 20 questions, but typically require anywhere from 25-300 questions plus a lot of hours of research or consultation with other AI assistants for you to converge on an answer, at which point you will have actually figured it out yourself.

At that point you’ll earn a one word reward, like Congratulations, plus 5% off coupon to purchase an 18 caret gold version of his now famous red nose, Nose Gold Edition, which will retail around $14,999 USD.

It’s cheaper to get Magic 8 Ball.

thrang · April 6, 2024 12:31PM

I thought Love, From was essential a design firm, which is how Ives deservedly earned his reknown. But not the HW/SW technical underbelly. So Altman and Ive seek a billion dollars for ... an idea? I would think big money would be considered only after a lot more sweat and tears development have been shed, and prototypes have been produced. If its true, that's a lot of money to ask without any mention of the technical and manufacturing prowess underpinning the idear. Sounds like he misses Apple!

Kierkegaarden · April 6, 2024 4:24PM

thrang said:

I thought Love, From was essential a design firm, which is how Ives deservedly earned his reknown. But not the HW/SW technical underbelly. So Altman and Ive seek a billion dollars for ... an idea? I would think big money would be considered only after a lot more sweat and tears development have been shed, and prototypes have been produced. If it’s true, that's a lot of money to ask without any mention of the technical and manufacturing prowess underpinning the idear. Sounds like he misses Apple!

I’m sure he does miss them. No relationship is ever completely rosy all the time — sometimes a short separation is all that is needed. Just focusing on design without being part of the rest of the process has got to be somewhat unfulfilling.

9secondkox2 · April 6, 2024 6:01PM

Would love to see Ive collab with Musk to create a new upstart tech Co. to take on Apple and really see each company push each other to new heights.

Tyrannical competition such as MS and Alphabet has created too easy a target.

Apple has had an easy time being the “good guy” as the bad guys are so obvious (unless you’re viewing through some bizarro EU/Merrick Garlsnd glasses).

Apple needs a true hood guy competitor to keep them honest and keep them going full throttle.

All new designed phones, watches, glasses, computers, tablets, cars, TVs, monitors, software UI, speakers, routers, quads/motorcycles, exercise bikes, treadmill, gyro equipped dumbbells and barbells, solar roofs, an AI based on freedom of speech, unbiased science and facts instead of one-sided ideologies, etc? Heck yeah. Just go all out on a lifestyle tech company with the best industrial designer in history. I’d probably run a duopoly of tech in my house until one was determined to be best for me and my family. Would be awesome.

As I have purposely stayed far away from alphabet trash after using it for work years ago, that’s a non-starter. Having gone to school specifically to be an MCSE years ago and dealing with ms support issues of colleagues just a few years ago, that’s also a non-starter. Apple is the only game in town.

I’ve always felt like Apple has done best when they had a target to shoot at. An enemy to take down. A technological cause yo pursue. But they r taken down their enemies, they’ve conquered the causes, and they’ve hit bullseyes on their targets. While the competitors are still competing, apples superiority is so obvious that it’s taking corrupt government actions to stymie their continued efforts.

The only drawback to apples success has been a drag on quality control and to some degree, the level of innovation.

A true competitor from an alliance that’s puts its money where its ideals are (freedom of speech/x, solving transportation congestion issues/the boring company, getting space tech out of the 70’s/spacex, using sustainable, renewable power/tesla solar, reducing reliance on fossil fuel/tesla, and bringing high quality communications to otherwise inaccessible areas/starlink), would really challenge Apple in the community responsibility areas, destroy them in the free speech areas, and cater more to people that aren’t on board with the recent attempts to redefine morality, while having the tech and design background to meet or exceed the standards people expect from apple themselves.

I don’t expect many on this forum (which, from the writers to a percentage of the users significantly lean a certain way, but something to think about snd something that actually could happen.

Ive is far too great a resource to be so underutilized as he is currently. No doubt he needed a break from the rapid -fire constant pressure he was under. But he’s had time to recharge, time to do the more personal design contracts he wanted, and it would be great to see a return to the industrial design industry helm.

davidmalcolm · April 6, 2024 8:38PM

I honestly have to wonder if this is Ive wanting to build a product, or if this is Ive thinking of something that everyone else will need t do to make a good AI interface and he wants to make a proof of concept just to pattent the ideas and then license them?

StrangeDays · April 6, 2024 8:50PM

canukstorm said:

paisleydisco said:

LOLOLOLOLOL

the rich guy looking for a handout

That's the secret to getting rich => with other people's money, not your own.

yep, unlike most American small business owners, rule #1 for the wealthy is never to risk their own money

StrangeDays · April 6, 2024 8:54PM

nubus said:

Tired of Ive. The original iMac and eMate 300 were fantastic and joyful (except for the stupid puck mouse). iPod was either paying homage to or a blatant rip-off on the works of Dieter Rams, and from there he went full Wegovy making devices thin to the point of unusable butterfly keyboards and a mouse that can't be used while charging.

I do hope Apple will let Beats make more interesting versions of their products. We have seen 25 years of TiBook design and the iPhone 15 Pro looks like the iPhone 4. Coke bottles and Lego blocks don't change much either. I just feel there could be new designs, colors, materials,...

Funny you just skipped over oodles of great devices. None of my devices are too thin to use, maybe you’ve just lost your dexterity? There are tons of new colors and materials, where have you been living? I use the Magic Mouse daily and never had a problem as it lasts for a month, notifies me when it’s time to charge, and does a 1-day quick charge in 2 mins while you make a cup of coffee. The whiners don’t even use it.

9secondkox2 · April 6, 2024 8:55PM

canukstorm said:

paisleydisco said:

LOLOLOLOLOL

the rich guy looking for a handout

That's the secret to getting rich => with other people's money, not your own.

Except… he’s already rich.

Hee doing it right. No need to risk your personal capital when there are other resources.

9secondkox2 · April 6, 2024 8:56PM

paisleydisco said:

LOLOLOLOLOL

the rich guy looking for a handout

It’s not for himself. It’s venture capital.

While different story.

tht · April 6, 2024 8:59PM

Seems to be running at least 2 years late if they are only at the raising venture capital stage now. All they have had are brainstorming sessions?! And, OpenAI is not giving LoveFrom enough money to at least prototype something? That's weird. And LoveFrom wants $1b? That's a lot!

I'm pretty skeptical of consumer oriented generative LLM devices. If it is a voice only device, I think it fails. Voice interfaces are horrible. It's non-deterministic and low information density while taking high cognitive load. It is just not something a large fraction of the market will get into imo. It would be an interesting feature to see evolve on our existing devices, but even there, I wonder how popular it will be. It will have to be something very suitable for those types of models.

On the backend and for services, we will surely be tortured by chat bots. Travel agents, helper chat bots, etc. Yeah, it's already quite frustrating to try to talk to a human for this or that during a phone call, but now there is or will be an additional gate of the chat bot sounding human, designed to not help while making the wall ever higher to get some kind of customer service.

Don't understand why there is so much enthusiasm from the tech mediarati for this. They are bored, just like in the first round of voice interfaces when Amazon Echo/Alexa devices was the new "it" technology. Apple was so far behind there as I recall. The Internet of Things? Machine learning? VR? I'm not even sure why people think Apple needs to have "AI" when it primarily exists as a search service and eventually, primarily driven by ad sales, something that is not Apple.

9secondkox2 · April 6, 2024 10:21PM

So far, the current ai execution is a strange thing. It’s basically a search engine that is better at understanding inputs. Some AI is also a content generator (I.e.search engine combined with ms word or photoshop script execution protocol/plagiarism protocol.

I’d love to see Apple bake the capability into Siri to create Automator scripts and execute them successively. I.e. take a video, edit it, add audio tracks, export to appropriate formats, save, upload, create a title, tagline, description, create tags, and go through the various webpages to publish on various platforms. Do the same thing for ebooks, audiobooks, apps, etc. extremely useful stuff. Just tell Siri to do it. Siri: “would you like me to do these things?” Yes. A conversation ensues where Siri asks you login info (if not already logged in), when and where to publish, the demographics you’re testing to reach, and any other relevant data needed to accomplish the various steps and Boom. Done.

Jony Ive is now looking for funding to jump on the AI development train

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