Jony Ive joins OpenAI: What to know about Apple's former design chief

Jony Ive is a British-American industrial designer, known for his role in designing iconic Apple products, including the iPhone, iPod, MacBook, and Apple Watch

Jony Ive, Apple Inc’s former design chief, credited with shaping the product design, is now joining Sam Altman’s OpenAI to create devices tailored for using generative artificial intelligence.

 

According to a statement released by OpenAI, the company will merge with Ive’s tech company, io, in a deal which is valued at $6.5 billion. Ive, who spent nearly three decades at Apple, will assume creative and design responsibilities at OpenAI.

 

Here’s all you need to know about Jony Ive

 

Born on February 27, 1967, in Chingford, England, Sir Jony Ive is a British-American industrial designer, known primarily for his role in designing popular Apple gadgets, including the iPhone, iPod, MacBook, and Apple Watch.

 

His father was a silversmith, and his mother was a psychotherapist, according to a Business Insider report.

 

Ive’s rise at Apple

 

Ive graduated from Newcastle Polytechnic, now Northumbria University, in the UK. He worked at Acme Corp for a brief period before joining Apple in 1992. Soon after joining Apple, Ive rose through the ranks quickly and made a name for himself. In 1997, as Steve Jobs took charge as the chief executive officer (CEO), Ive become the Senior Vice-President of Design.

 

Ive has maintained creative oversight over the design of several Apple products, over the years. While launching the Apple Watch, Ive worked with Tim Cook.

 

Jobs was “tough to get along”, according to the report. However, Ive described working with him as his best years, adding that those were “the most joyful and extraordinary 15 years of my life”. Ive mentioned the two had lunch together every week and discussed designs, while also going on family vacations. Ive and Cook worked together from 1997-2011.

 

In 2015, he further rose and was promoted as the chief design officer at Apple, and in the next two years, his focus was on Apple's headquarters, the Apple Park "spaceship," for which he designed most of the little details. In 2017, he regained direct control of Apple's design team.

 

In 2019, he announced his exit after a 27-year stint at Apple.

 

Ive’s career after Apple

 

After exiting Apple, Ive started a design company in 2019, called LoveFrom, along with his fellow designer Marc Newson. LoveFrom counted Airbnb and Apple as its first few clients. Last year, he launched a startup, io, as part of a project between OpenAI and LoveFrom. Sam Altman's OpenAI acquired a 23 per cent stake in io.

 

Awards and recognitions

 

Ive has received numerous design awards for his work. He was named a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his contributions to design in May 2012.

 

His other awards include the San Francisco MoMA's Lifetime Achievement Award Inaugural Medal, the Benjamin Franklin Medal, The President's Award, The Royal Academy of Engineering's President's Medal, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum's Product Design Award.