“If I had a spiritual partner at Apple, it’s Jony,” the late Steve Jobs said of Sir Jony Ive, the British designer. Together, the pair changed the way billions of people interact with technology, with the launch of the iPhone almost two decades ago. Jobs was the visionary leader and inventor. Ive finessed the look and feel – the aura – that made Apple’s products so sought-after.

Now, six years after leaving Apple and more than a decade after Jobs’ death, Ive is making a remarkable return to Silicon Valley’s bleeding edge with a new collaborator – Sam Altman.

In his decades at Apple, Ive helped craft products that defined eras, including the iMac, the iPod and the iPhone.Credit: Carolyn Fong/The New York Times

The design expert will work with OpenAI and its founder Altman to develop a new range of consumer gadgets that can augment, and perhaps one day replace, the iPhone he helped make inescapable. OpenAI has announced a deal to subsume IO, a start-up founded by Ive, in an all-share deal with an eye-catching $US6.5 billion ($10 billion) price.

Ive will be a consultant, not a full employee. IO’s staff, made up of world-leading designers, engineers and creatives, will join OpenAI.

The new partners plan to “completely reimagine what it means to use a computer”, Altman says, using OpenAI’s artificial intelligence, ChatGPT. Details are scarce on what their products will ultimately look like, but Altman told staff that he and Ive intended to build millions of artificial intelligence (AI) “companions”. It is not expected to be a phone or have a screen.

If Ive is to be believed, his next act could be more transformational than his long stint in Cupertino. “Everything I have learnt over the last 30 years has led me to this place and to this moment,” Ive said when announcing the deal.

If he is right, then the partnership could prove transformational – not just for OpenAI but for society as a whole.

In his decades at Apple, Ive helped craft products........

© The Age