In early February 2025, the first official details about a new AI gadget being developed by OpenAI were released. Rumors about the device had been circulating for a year and a half, and in the fall of 2024, it was revealed that Jony Ive, the former head of design at Apple, was involved in its creation.
According to the developers, the gadget is expected to radically transform the way users interact with artificial intelligence and computers as a whole.
Jony Ive joined Apple in 1992 and remained with the company for 27 years. Under his leadership, the design of iconic devices such as the iPod, iPhone, iPad, MacBook, and Apple Watch was created. In late 2019, he left Apple to establish his own independent studio, LoveFrom, with Apple becoming one of its first clients.
According to The New York Times, Apple and LoveFrom signed a multi-year contract worth over $100 million. As part of this agreement, the studio provided consulting services, and Ive committed to not working on projects that could compete with Apple's products.
However, the collaboration ended in mid-2022. As the contract term was coming to an end, both parties decided not to renew it. According to NYT sources, Apple had concerns about the payments made to Ive and was also dissatisfied with several designers leaving the company to join LoveFrom. Ive, on the other hand, sought greater freedom in choosing clients.
LoveFrom's clients included not only Apple but also Ferrari and Airbnb. However, reports on joint projects with these companies rarely appeared in the media. In the fall of 2024, The New York Times reported that Ive worked on the design of certain elements of Ferrari's first electric car, including the steering wheel. For Airbnb, LoveFrom redesigned the review system and made improvements to the app interface.
Ive noted that working with these clients brings LoveFrom up to $200 million annually. However, the studio’s operations remain largely private. On its official website, only the company's name, displayed in the signature LoveFrom Serif font, and an animation of a bear are present.
At the end of 2024, it was revealed that Ive designed a modular jacket for the brand Moncler. The jacket consists of a vest to which additional layers of clothing can be attached, effectively making it several jackets in one. The minimum cost of the base set was $2,440. The clothing elements are connected using a special magnetic fastening featuring LoveFrom's signature bear emblem.
The first rumors about a possible collaboration between Jony Ive and OpenAI surfaced in September 2023, when LoveFrom had already ended its partnership with Apple. The project also involved the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, one of the key investors in the AI platform Stargate. According to the Financial Times, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son was willing to invest over a billion dollars in the development of the new device.
The project's goal was to create a device that would be the "iPhone" of the artificial intelligence world—providing natural and intuitive interaction with AI, much like how the iPhone's touchscreen once opened the mobile internet to the masses.
However, according to FT, the deal had not yet been finalized at that time. The question of establishing a separate company to manufacture the device was still under discussion, and its market release was not expected for several years.
A year later, in an interview with The New York Times, Jony Ive confirmed that he was collaborating with OpenAI. He also revealed that one of his buildings in San Francisco had been designated as the headquarters of a new, yet unnamed company working on the AI device.
Journalists discovered that Ive was introduced to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman through Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb and a LoveFrom client. It was also revealed that Emerson Collective—a nonprofit organization led by Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Steve Jobs—was involved in funding the project. The NYT report did not mention any potential investments from SoftBank in this initiative.
The development of the device is being carried out by a small team of around 10 people, including former colleagues of Ive from Apple. Among them is Tang Tan, the former Vice President of Product Design at Apple, who left the company in February 2024. He was involved in the development of the iPhone and Apple Watch. Also on the team is Evans Hankey, who succeeded Ive as Apple's chief designer in 2019 but left the company three years later.
In early February 2025, Sam Altman revealed details of the project for the first time. In an interview with the Korean publication The Elec, which was noted by Android Authority, he stated that the primary mode of interaction with the device would be voice control. According to Altman, "fundamental changes in how we interact with computers" are necessary for AI to advance further. However, it remains unclear whether the device will feature a screen.
Altman also noted that OpenAI is developing its own chips for AI-powered devices. This is likely to delay the product's release, as the process of creating a prototype is expected to take several years.
It is worth noting that attempts to rethink AI interaction have already been made. In 2024, two devices aimed at simplifying work with artificial intelligence were introduced to the market, but both turned out to be failures.
One such device was the Rabbit R1, presented at CES 2024 in Las Vegas. This gadget was positioned as a voice-controlled AI assistant capable of handling everyday tasks such as ordering taxis, playing music, and booking flights and hotels.
Rabbit R1 featured a small touchscreen, a speaker, and a rotating camera. Control was carried out via a special scroll wheel, which also functioned as a button. The key feature of the device was its lack of integration with specific apps—its AI was supposed to analyze and replicate user actions.
In reality, Rabbit R1 failed at almost everything. At launch, it worked with only four applications (including Uber and Spotify), but frequently made mistakes or displayed error messages. The device struggled to complete any tasks correctly—it mixed up addresses when ordering taxis and failed to recognize song titles. Ordering food delivery was particularly frustrating. “I planned to use it for a whole week, but I got bored after just one day,” wrote Gizmodo journalist Dua Rashid in a review.
Journalists also criticized its battery life. Developers claimed it would last all day, but in reality, Rabbit R1 only worked for five to six hours, much of which was in standby mode.
The company claimed to have sold 130,000 units worldwide by early summer. However, by September, it was revealed that the number of active users of the AI assistant did not exceed 5,000. Even though some issues were fixed through updates six months after launch, Rabbit R1, according to journalists, remains largely a useless device that is inferior to a regular smartphone in almost every way.
Another failed gadget was the AI Pin from the American startup Humane. It was founded by spouses Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, both former Apple employees. Chaudhri worked at Apple for over 20 years, contributing to user interface design, including the first iPhone's interface. Bongiorno was a director of iOS and macOS software development and was involved in launching the first iPad.
Humane aimed to introduce an entirely new class of consumer devices, much like Jony Ive’s studio. One of the investors in this project was OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman, and the device’s primary AI system was based on GPT-4.
The AI Pin is an AI-powered brooch that can be attached to clothing or a bag. It lacks a screen, instead using a laser projector to display information on various surfaces, including the user’s palm. The device is controlled via voice commands and gestures. It also features a touchpad, speaker, microphone, multiple sensors, and a camera.
The device launched in April 2024—and turned out to be a failure. Journalists criticized the AI Pin for its poor interface and inconvenient controls, frequent errors in processing requests, and lack of essential AI assistant functions. At launch, it couldn’t even set an alarm or add events to a calendar. The laser projector displayed text poorly, especially under bright lighting, and the device overheated significantly.
According to The New York Times, the startup expected to sell around 100,000 units by the end of 2024. However, between May and August, the number of AI Pin returns exceeded sales. It was also discovered that the device’s charger did not meet fire safety regulations, forcing the company to recall it. By late summer, according to The Verge sources, Humane had sold only about 7,000 AI Pins.
Just a week after scathing reviews were published, Chaudhri and Bongiorno began negotiations about a potential sale of the startup. According to NYT sources, HP, known for producing computers and printers, was a leading candidate. However, the deal never materialized—perhaps because Humane valued itself at over a billion dollars, which may have deterred buyers.
Although the Humane AI assistant is still available for purchase, it is unclear whether the developers will attempt to improve or further develop it. For now, they are focusing on promoting their proprietary operating system, CosmOS, which powers the AI Pin. Humane claims that CosmOS can coordinate various AI models for use in automotive systems or smart home management. However, this remains purely conceptual—apart from the AI Pin, there are no real-world examples of CosmOS in action.
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