OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) is purchasing legendary Apple (AAPL) designer Jony Ive’s startup, io, for $6.5 billion in an effort to develop a new family of products that take advantage of generative AI technologies.

“The products that we’re using to deliver and connect us to unimaginable technology, they’re decades old,” Ive said in a pre-recorded video released by OpenAI.

“And so it’s just common sense to at least think, surely there’s something beyond these legacy products.

Ive famously oversaw the design of Apple’s original colorful iMac, as well as products ranging from the iPad, Apple Watch and, most importantly, the iPhone. He left Apple in 2019 as its chief design officer to start his own design company called LoveFrom.

Ive later founded io with his Apple successor Evans Hanky, as well as Tang Tan and Scott Cannon, who also worked at Apple.British industrial and product designer Jony Ive attends the WSJ. Magazine 2022 Innovator Awards at The Museum of Modern Art on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)·Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

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

According to OpenAI, Ive and LoveFrom will assume design and creative responsibilities across OpenAI and io, and plan to share their work next year.

Rumors have swirled for sometime that OpenAI was working on a new kind of AI-powered device that will replace the smartphones we use everyday, but doing so will take an enormous effort.

Smartphone makers sell hundreds of millions of devices each year. And while sales are no longer growing as they once did, it's still an incredibly lucrative business for companies live Apple and Samsung, which dominate the space.

Tech companies are torn on what the next major step in consumer technology will be.

Meta and Google are leaning into augmented reality and AI-powered smart glasses, with Google announcing new partnerships for its own eyewear during its I/O conference on Tuesday. Meta already sells its Ray-Ban Meta glasses. Apple is also reportedly working on its own smart glasses.

We've also seen early attempts at AI-focused gadgets including the Rabbit R1 and Humane pin, but neither caught on with consumers. Humane sold its technology to HP in February.Sign up for Yahoo Finance's Week in Tech newsletter.·yahoofinance

Email Daniel Howley at [email protected]. Follow him on X/Twitter at @DanielHowley.

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