- OpenAI’s partnership with Jony Ive’s design firm io, backed by Laurene Powell Jobs and her Emerson Collective, is shrouded in secrecy but driven by a shared vision of creating technology that serves humanity and inspires creativity. Despite growing concerns over the darker effects of technology, Powell Jobs and other collaborators remain optimistic that AI can be harnessed as a powerful force for good.
Despite being one of the most-discussed developments in the AI industry, details of the new io-OpenAI device are scarce. But it seems Laurene Powell Jobs, philanthropist and entrepreneur, is one of the few people in the know.
Late last month, the tech sector was alight with the news that Sam Altman’s OpenAI had merged with io, an AI design company led by none other than Jony Ive.
Ive famously rose to tech design stardom having worked alongside Apple founder Steve Jobs on products like the iPhone and iMac.
While working at Apple as chief design officer, Ive met the founder’s wife, Laurene Powell Jobs, now the founder and president of investment company Emerson Collective.
The connection between the pair has remained strong, with Emerson Collective investing in Ive’s creative collective LoveFrom, (indeed Ive says it wouldn’t exist without the support of Powell Jobs) and creating a link to the OpenAI partnership as a result.
Powell Jobs said that so far, she has been a “trusted, beloved friend” in the development process of the io-OpenAI collaboration, adding that she is also an “admirer of new ideas.”
In an interview with the Financial Times alongside Ive, the businesswoman added she watched “in real time how ideas go from a thought to some words, to some drawings, to some stories, and then to prototypes, and then a different type of prototype.
“And then something that you think: I can’t imagine that getting any better. Then seeing the next version, which is even better. Just watching something brand new be manifested, it’s a wondrous thing to behold.”
A key question when it comes to AI is also who will win, and what does winning look like?
Is it the company which dominates with a new product—as the io and OpenAI team are hoping—is it building the best large language model, is it building AI into existing products most effectively, or is it achieving human-level generative AI?
These are the questions facing all major tech companies, with Powell Jobs also having a notable interest in another key player: Apple.
On this account, she added: “I’m still very close to the leadership team in Apple. They’re really good people and I want them to succeed also.”
Returning to roots
While speculation about what exactly Ive’s new device may be is rife, the motivation for its existence is clear.
Ive says a driver for the design is the fact that “humanity deserves better” than an “uneasy” relationship with technology.
Or, as Altman and Ive wrote in their announcement of the io-OpenAI merge, the ideas their collaboration had produced “seemed important and useful. They were optimistic and hopeful. They were inspiring. They made everyone smile. They reminded us of a time when we celebrated human achievement, grateful for new tools that helped us learn, explore and create.”
Ive added the need to be useful to humanity was once the bedrock for innovation in Silicon Valley, adding: “When I first moved here [in 1992] I came because it was characterised by people who genuinely saw that their purpose was in service to humanity, to inspire people and help people create. I don’t feel that way about this place right now.”
Powell Jobs added that there are now “dark uses” for certain types of technology, citing surveys that found how negatively young people’s mental health has been impacted by tech, for example.
“Technology wasn’t designed to have that result, but that is the sideways result,” she added.
With AI, those questions loom even larger, a fact the likes of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was quick to point out. As he wrote on his blog, GatesNotes, in July 2023 the risks of artificial intelligence are “real but manageable.”
“I believe there are more reasons than not to be optimistic that we can manage the risks of AI while maximizing their benefits. But we need to move fast,” he added.
Indeed, Powell Jobs, worth $14 billion according to Forbes, remains hopeful, saying, “people are still animated” by the idea that technology can be a force for good.