Sam Altman is working with Jony Ive and Steve Jobs’ widow on AI device

I founded LoveFrom in 2019 after nearly 30 years at Apple, where I led design efforts on the iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.

Ive and Altman met several times for dinner, where they discussed the potential of launching a new AI-based computing device, according to The Times. They eventually agreed to build it together.

Altman’s new venture is raising money privately and has secured funding from both Ive and Emerson Collective, the impact investing and philanthropy firm founded by Powell Jobs. The startup is on track to raise up to $1 billion in startup funding by the end of 2024, according to The Times.

Marc Newson, co-founder of LoveFrom with Ive, told The Times that they were still working out details of the product and a launch date.

In October 2023, Altman expressed his interest in AI-powered devices during a speech at The Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live event.

“I’m interested in the topic, I think it’s possible,” Altman told The Journal’s technology columnist Joanna Stern at the event.

“I think any new technology big enough will enable some new computing platform. But lots of ideas, but all very early.”

It’s worth noting that in October 2023, Altman told Stern that he didn’t think AI devices would eclipse smartphones.

“Smartphones are great. I’m not trying to compete with the smartphone. It’s a phenomenal thing at what it does,” Altman said.

“But I think it’s worth the effort to talk or think about what we can do now that wasn’t possible before, before we had computers that could think, or computers that could understand whatever you wanted to call it. And if the answer is nothing, that would be a little disappointing.”

Of course, Altman and Ive are not the only ones who see potential in an AI-based device.

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Former Apple employees Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno co-founded their own AI startup, Humane, in 2019 and launched their first product, the Ai Pin, in November. However, the pin received poor reviews for its capabilities during its launch.

In May, Bloomberg reported that Humane was looking for a buyer and was looking for a price of $750 million to $1 billion. The company was valued at $850 million last year, according to The Information.

The company saw more returns than purchases of Ai Pin between May and August of this year, The Verge reported last month, citing internal sales data it obtained. Zoz Cuccias, a spokesperson for Humane, told The Verge that the company would not comment on the financial data and would refer the matter to its lawyer.

Representatives for Altman of OpenAI and Powell Jobs of Emerson Collective did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment, sent outside business hours.