As OpenAI gears up for its next chapter in the AI hardware business, its newest star contributor has shed light on the side effects of advanced technology on human lives. Jony Ive, the man who played an instrumental role in designing the iPhone, iMac and the iPod, has spoken at large in an interview about how technology affects our lives and whether the side effects tend to have a negative impact on us on the occasion of his collaboration with Sam Altman’s OpenAI.
In an interview with The Financial Times, Jony Ive stressed on how humans have an uneasy relationship with technology and that the next generation of devices need to have a sense of making it all better – “a sense of ‘we deserve better’, humanity deserves better.”
As a contributor to some of the most influential gadgets of our times, Ive says that he feels the burden of the negative impact of modern technology products. “While some of the less positive consequences were unintentional, I still feel responsibility. And the manifestation of that is a determination to try and be useful,” says the British-born designer.
“If you make something new, if you innovate, there will be consequences unforeseen, and some will be wonderful and some will be harmful,” he added.
Jony Ive working on AI companion device at OpenAI
Ive’s latest statements come in the wake of OpenAI’s big announcements related to its next chapter in the consumer technology field. Last week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Ive came together in a video to announce the merger of the latter’s hardware startup, io, with OpenAI. In the conversation that followed, Altman was excited to reveal some information about OpenAI’s first hardware product. Altman said that he was excited to see the prototype and claimed it to be “the coolest piece of technology the world will have ever seen.”
Industry insiders hinted at this device being an iPod Shuffle-lookalike with no screen to interact with. The device could be worn around on the neck and may have enough capabilities to act as the third core device after your laptop and smartphone. The device is expected to enter mass production in 2027.
