A screenless phone? iPhone designer tapped to make new OpenAI device

AI is everywhere, helping us shop, shape movies, and even write music

But what happens when the company behind ChatGPT decides it's time to build something you can hold

He's the man behind the iPhone design, and now OpenAI is tapping former Apple executive Johnny Ive

in a $6.5 billion deal to help create AI hardware. OpenAI's Thursday announcement reads

It became clear that our ambitions to develop, engineer, and manufacture a new family of products demanded an entirely new company

Johnny recently gave me one of the prototypes of the device for the first time to take home and I've been able to live with it

And I think it is the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen

Ivan his team of about 55 engineers and researchers are joining OpenAI in what the New York Times calls the company biggest acquisition to date But what are they actually building According to a leaked call reported by The Verge it won be glasses and CEO Sam Altman has denied they working on a phone

Insiders believe it could be a screenless device with phone-like functions. Ive has a track record. He designed the first iMac back in 1998 and the first Apple Watch in 2014

He even designed a landline in the 80s called The Orator. And this $250,000 ring made from a single diamond sold at auction

It may be a natural fit. Altman is also behind a biometric eye scanning orb meant to verify your identity and store info on the blockchain if it gains enough global traction

This deal isn't exclusive. Ives' design studio, Loveform, will continue taking on other projects

but this one has tech and design fans watching closely to see what emerges out of San Francisco

With Straight Arrow news, I'm Kennedy Felton. Download our app or visit san.com for more