OpenAI acquires design collective founded by iPhone designer

OpenAI has acquired start-up LoveFrom, with British designer Sir Jony Ive, founder of the company and former employee at Apple, joining the AI giant as part of the move.

LoveFrom is a creative collective of designers, architects and musicians which has worked with the likes of Apple, Airbnb and Ferrari.

Following an initial collaboration with LoveFrom, OpenAI said that it had created a new company, called io, to create, develop, engineer and manufacture a “new family” of products based on ideas from the design collective.

This company comprises technologists, physicists, researchers and experts in product development.

Following the merger between io and LoveFrom, Ive and LoveFrom will assume deep design and creative responsibilities across OpenAI and io.

OpenAI said that Ive and the collective had “quietly” started collaborating two years ago with OpenAI.

Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, said that the ideas generated by LoveFrom during this period were “optimistic, hopeful and inspiring”.

“AI is an incredible technology, but great tools require work at the intersection of technology, design, and understanding people and the world,” Altman said. “No one can do this like Jony and his team; the amount of care they put into every aspect of the process is extraordinary.

“I hope we can bring some of the delight, wonder and creative spirit that I first felt using an Apple Computer 30 years ago.”

Ive joined Apple in 1992, and held various roles including senior vice president of industrial design.

He was involved in the designs of several products including the iMac, Apple watch and the user interface of Apple’s iOS operating system. He was chief design officer from 2015 until he left the company in 2019.