Sam Altman and Jony Ive on 'IO': From AI Devices in 'Times Square' to 'Cabins by the Lake'
When discussing the future of AI, hardware, and design, there are few pairs as 'iconic' as OpenAI's Sam Altman and former Apple chief designer Jony Ive. While the new company they founded, 'IO,' has yet to reveal a specific product, their 'philosophy of making things' and their view on 'the meaning of San Francisco as a city' are already quite clear.
In this article, we will organize the worldview that IO aims for, based on their conversation with Laurene Powell Jobs.
In this article, we will organize the worldview that IO aims for, based on their conversation with Laurene Powell Jobs.
1. San Francisco as a 'Laboratory' City
First, the three of them mentioned the place that is San Francisco itself repeatedly.
Jony Ive looks back on his first visit in 1989 like this.
'Topographically, it's an impossible place—you think, "Why would anyone build a city here?" But it felt right emotionally.'
For him, coming from a massive metropolis like London, San Francisco—surrounded by a peninsula and with its growth 'contained'—was a city of high density and diversity, where chance encounters and collaborations were likely to happen.
Meanwhile, Altman describes San Francisco as the 'end of the frontier.'
As the 'edge' of a map read from east to west, it has always been a place where people who constantly seek 'newness' and 'possibility' gather.
He further summarizes the SF-ness like this.
One of the world's leading 'free, strange, and creative cultures'
It is actually 'inevitable' that Burning Man and AI research would emerge from the same city
Because it is a small city, you can encounter areas with a 'completely different atmosphere' just by walking a few blocks
As Laurene Powell Jobs says,
San Francisco is 'a laboratory for human potential and a factory floor.'
It is no mere coincidence that IO was born here.
2. The Starting Point of IO: Beginning with a 'Question' Rather Than a Product
What is surprising is that the IO project did not start with 'let's make an AI-native product.'
Laurene introduces the initial process as follows.
'What we thought about first was not an "AI-like product," but delving into themes like the relationship between humans and nature, humans and animals, humans and each other, the history of tools, values, and human rights... almost as an academic research project.'
Jony explains this approach as follows.
If you decide on a goal in advance, you won't even notice what you are missing
The starting point of healthy creation is 'a desire for learning and exploration, rather than a conclusion'
Driven by the feeling of 'wanting to know more' rather than 'being right'
They even value long silences.
Jony says, 'A relationship where you feel that silence isn't an awkward time, but a time to think together, is very healthy.'
On top of that, the team at LoveFrom (Jony's design studio) creates vast research books.
The evolution of 'forms' in history, camera design, the development of human relationships...
Stacks of thick books are created for each theme
At first glance, much of this seems to have nothing to do with the final product.
However, Altman says, 'Looking back, all those threads were connected to the final prototype.'
What we have here is the polar opposite of a startup that 'solidifies a business plan from the start.'
They prioritize 'good questions' and 'layers of research' while accepting the possibility that nothing may come of it for years.
IO adopts such a luxurious, yet long-term, highly rational process.
3. From 'Times Square' to a 'Lakeside Cabin': The Image of Devices in the AI Era
Of course, almost nothing has been revealed about the specific contents of the product.
Even so, several important hints were given regarding 'what kind of experience they are aiming for.'
Altman criticizes the current smartphone app experience like this.
'Using current devices feels like walking through Times Square in New York.
Flashing ads, notifications, content competing for your attention... a constant stream of small stresses.'
He then contrasts the experience IO is aiming for with 'the feeling of being in a quiet lakeside cabin.'
An AI that deeply understands the user's context and takes on tasks over the long term
Intelligently judging when to notify and when not to
As a result, even though a vast amount is happening on the other side of the screen, the user can regain 'quiet' and 'focus'
Altman says such an experience was impossible with 'pre-AI era devices.'
It is fair to say that IO is trying to create hardware that incorporates AI not as a 'feature,' but as a 'prerequisite (new property).'
To borrow Jony's words, the product they are aiming for is as follows.
It looks 'disarmingly simple,' and even seems a bit naive
Yet inside, it harbors extremely advanced and sophisticated intelligence
Users will 'want to touch it casually as a tool, not with trepidation'
He also says this about his ideal design.
“When it’s in the right form, you know it because you want to lick it or take a bite out of it.”
They are trying to bring the sense of an 'object you want to touch'—something often discussed during the Apple era—to AI devices as well.
And there is one more thing Jony emphasized: 'humor and joy'.
“There is too little humor in products in this field. Precisely because we live in serious times, we want to create products that make people smile.”
Incorporating not just efficiency and productivity, but also 'joy,' 'playfulness,' and 'lightness' into AI products.
This could be called an ambition very similar to what the iMac and iPod once brought to the world of PCs.
4. Transistors and AI: Positioning as 'Foundational Technology'
At the end of the conversation, Altman cited the 'invention of the transistor' as a historical analogy for understanding AI.
It was an event close to 'discovering' a new property of physical laws.
The company that invented it didn't necessarily become a giant corporation itself, but it 'changed the world by permeating' every industry.
While almost no one consciously uses products thinking of them as 'transistor products' now, the transistor has become the foundation for everything.
AI, too, will dissolve from a stage where it is consciously recognized as a 'product of an AI company' into an 'obvious layer' embedded everywhere in society.
It can be said that IO and OpenAI are at the stage of redesigning the very nature of that 'foundational technology meets device' relationship.
5. Conclusion: The Next Decade of 'AI x Design' Shown by IO
At this moment, there are no concrete product photos or spec sheets for IO.
Even so, the following vision emerges from this conversation:
A frontier spirit rooted in the 'strange and free city' of San Francisco.
A research-oriented approach that starts from fundamental questions like 'human,' 'tool,' and 'value' rather than immediately defining a product.
A redefinition of AI devices that leads from the 'attention-grabbing' Times Square model to the 'tranquility' of a lakeside cabin.
A product philosophy that recovers not just efficiency, but also 'humor,' 'joy,' and a 'sense of wanting to touch.'
Like the 'spoon,' 'zipper,' and 'pocket' that Jony Ive spoke of with affection,
the products IO creates may also, before we know it, blend into our daily lives,
becoming existences we feel are 'inconvenient to be without.'
That 'moment when the world changes before and after' will come in the not-too-distant future—
that premonition was seeping through every part of the conversation.