THE EXTENSION

Exploring topics beyond our day-to-day coverage.

Seeing Past the Hype of the Jony Ive & Sam Altman Collaboration

• Jonathan

I think it’s fair to say that the dust has adequately settled on the OpenAI/Jony Ive/io news from last week. It’s been on my mind quite a bit as I’ve seen all the hot takes, both positive and negative. Most of the conversation has been focused on the new device that Ive and the team at io have been working on. While many people see this as the big news, that’s not the part of the announcement I’ve been thinking about. That honor goes to a sentence right at the end of the statement on OpenAI’s website, which I’ll dig deeper into shortly.

First, let me acknowledge that this is, indeed, big news. A collaboration between OpenAI and the designer of many legendary Apple products, working on new hardware together, was always going to be huge. Yet, I feel headlines like “Jony Ive’s OpenAI Deal Puts Pressure on Apple to Find Next Big Thing” are way overblown. I’m sure Apple is feeling stung right now, but let’s remember, this device – whatever it is – isn’t due to be released until late 2026 at the earliest. And even then, there’s no guarantee it will be any good.