Former Apple designer Jony Ive, known for helping drive the world’s obsession with smartphones and other touch devices, has some thoughts on how to improve our relationship with technology.
The 58-year-old designer was instrumental in creating the iPhone, iPod, and iPad, and is now helping OpenAI create AI-first devices after it acquired his AI hardware startup, Io, earlier this year for a cool $6.5 billion. But rather than replicate the work that made him famous, Ive said he wants to create devices that spark more joy and less anxiety, Business Insider reported.
“When I said we have an uncomfortable relationship with our technology, I mean that’s the most obscene understatement,” Ive said while being interviewed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman this week at OpenAI’s DevDay conference.
Ive said his latest work at OpenAI is a chance to completely change the situation the world finds itself in regarding technology so as to “not accept the norm.” Apparently, he and his team have no shortage of ideas to bring this vision to life.
“That momentum has led us to create 15 to 20 really compelling product ideas. The challenge is to focus,” Ive told Altman at the San Francisco event. “It would be easy if you knew there are three good ones. It’s just not like that. We’re designing a family of products. And we’re trying to make sure we’re judicious and thoughtful in what we focus on and to then not be distracted.”
