When two of the technology world’s most revered figures sit down for a chat, you know something intriguing is afoot. In a freshly published interview with the Financial Times, former Apple design chief Sir Jony Ive and Laurene Powell Jobs—longtime confidante of the late Steve Jobs—opened up about their shared past at Apple and their hopes (and concerns) for an AI-powered future. At the center of their conversation? A mysterious new gadget being built by Ive in collaboration with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, a project that has now earned Powell Jobs’s enthusiastic endorsement.

Ive and Powell Jobs first crossed paths when Ive was leading Apple’s design team alongside Steve Jobs, who was married to Powell Jobs. Their professional relationship naturally evolved into a personal friendship, one that has endured long after Steve’s passing in 2011. Powell Jobs recounts that even as Apple was unveiling iconic products like the iMac and iPod, Ive and Steve were deeply immersed in imagining how technology could reshape everyday life—and, in the process, sometimes sow unintended challenges.

“Many of us would say we have an uneasy relationship with technology at the moment,” Ive reflects in the FT interview, acknowledging that some of the world’s most transformative inventions—like the iPhone—have also fostered unintended consequences, from screen addiction to the algorithmic amplification of social-media echo chambers. That self-awareness forms the bedrock of his next venture: a device that’s being co-developed with OpenAI, which has, until now, kept most details tightly under wraps.

In May, Ive told The Financial Times that his latest work is driven by a sense of accountability: “If you make something new, if you innovate, there will be consequences unforeseen, and some will be wonderful and some will be harmful. While some of the less positive consequences were unintentional, I still feel responsibility. And the manifestation of that is a determination to try and be useful.” Those remarks underscore a recurring theme in both the FT and other press coverage: Ive’s candid admission that the iPhone—though revolutionary—introduced a host of new anxieties, from the addictive pull of tiny screens to rising concerns over mental health and online privacy.

Powell Jobs, who has remained close friends with Ive since Steve’s death, echoes these reflections. “There are dark uses for certain types of technology,” she notes, “even if it wasn’t designed to have that result.” Her voice carries added weight: as founder of Emerson Collective, she has poured investment into causes ranging from independent journalism to immigration reform. Her involvement in Ive’s enterprises—including both LoveFrom (Ive’s design collective founded in 2019) and his hardware startup io—speaks to a shared conviction that design can (and should) be a force for good.

After stepping away from Apple in 2019, Ive channeled his creative energies into LoveFrom, a San Francisco-based design collective that has consulted for heavyweight brands like Airbnb, Ferrari, and Apple itself. LoveFrom’s ethos has always been one of deliberate, human-centered design—far from the relentless product churn typical of Silicon Valley. But somewhere along the way, Ive began to wonder whether an entirely new form of computing experience was possible—one that harnessed generative AI without replicating the pitfalls of our screen-saturated age.

That led to the founding of io, a stealthy hardware startup whose precise purpose has been shrouded in NDAs and silence—until very recently. In May 2025, OpenAI announced its intention to acquire io for roughly $6.5 billion, a deal that not only brings Ive’s team under the OpenAI umbrella but also signals the scale of ambition behind whatever device they’re building. As part of the arrangement, LoveFrom will remain an independent design partner to other clients, while OpenAI becomes a marquee customer for LoveFrom’s expertise.

From a practical standpoint, that merger means Ive’s small cadre of former Apple designers—reportedly numbering around ten core team members, including alumni like Tang Tan and Evans Hankey—will now be fully funded to explore hardware possibilities at a scale that few startups can match. Rumors suggest they’ve converted a sizable footprint in San Francisco’s Jackson Square into a workspace dedicated to prototyping everything from sensors to bespoke materials. But concrete details about what the device will look like or do remain sparse.

Speculation has been rampant ever since news first surfaced last fall that Ive was “in advanced talks” with Sam Altman and SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son to develop what some have called “the iPhone of AI.” Does that mean a handheld touchscreen gadget? Most evidence points away from that. Ive teased that the forthcoming product could be “compact, screenless, wearable around the neck, and fully aware of its user’s environment.” Altman himself reportedly hailed a prototype as potentially “the coolest piece of technology the world will have ever seen,” with mass production eyed for sometime in 2027.

Even so, all parties are scrambling to keep specifics under wraps. Press accounts indicate that the device aims to employ advanced AI functions—think: real-time language understanding, object recognition, context-sensitive suggestions—without compelling users to fixate on a screen. Instead of swiping through app icons, you might speak, gesture, or interact more naturally, a vision that resonates with Ive’s long-held fascination with intuitive interfaces and minimal form factors.

Powell Jobs is not merely an onlooker; she’s been an early backer of both LoveFrom and io, channeling capital through Emerson Collective to nurture Ive’s post-Apple ambitions. “There wouldn’t be LoveFrom without her involvement,” Ive admits, acknowledging that Powell Jobs’s belief in his vision provided the runway for LoveFrom’s early work—whether that meant designing sustainable product lines or, now, reimagining how we interact with AI.

Given her track record—owning The Atlantic, funding investigative journalism, and spearheading immigration policy work—Powell Jobs is no stranger to long-term bets on transformative ideas. In the FT interview, she paints a vivid picture of what it’s like to watch a concept evolve: “I’ve seen ideas go from a fleeting thought to scribbles on a napkin, to detailed drawings, to functional prototypes—and then something you swore couldn’t possibly get any better suddenly does,” she says. “Just watching something brand new be manifested is a wondrous thing to behold.”

If that trajectory sounds lofty, consider that Powell Jobs’s stakes are substantial. With her investment, if this gadget gains even a fraction of the cultural impact the iPhone did, the returns—both financial and societal—could be monumental. Yet, as both she and Ive emphasize, the goal isn’t to replace Apple; it’s to address the ethical blind spots that accompanied the smartphone era.

“Many of us would say we have an uneasy relationship with technology at the moment,” Ive told the FT, an admission that resonates deeply in 2025. Between “doomscrolling” marathons, the AI-driven deluge of misinformation, and mounting concerns about privacy, consumers are more wary than ever. Yet, paradoxically, they crave innovation that simplifies rather than complicates their lives.

Ive’s aspiration is to create technology that feels less like a tether and more like a helpful companion. When you strip away the luminous rectangle most of us clutch for hours each day, what remains? Perhaps a discreet wearable that listens, understands context, and offers guidance—without demanding endless attention or breeding addiction. That notion has prompted comparisons to early-day Silicon Valley optimism, in which the promise was to empower, educate, and uplift—rather than harvest clicks for ad dollars.

Powell Jobs concurs that innovation without foresight can unleash dark uses. She points to examples ranging from predatory social-media algorithms that stoke outrage to AI-powered deepfakes that erode trust. Neither she nor Ive suggests a perfect solution is at hand, but their partnership with OpenAI—a company that itself wrestles daily with balancing rapid AI development against ethical guardrails—signals an earnest attempt to chart a different course.

For now, the world waits. Suppliers must be lined up, software and hardware must harmonize seamlessly, and regulatory scrutiny—particularly around devices that record and interpret our surroundings—will only intensify.

Yet optimism is abundant. Powell Jobs’s faith in Ive is unshakable; she’s witnessed “prototype after prototype” blossom under his stewardship. Altman, for his part, has staked a significant portion of OpenAI’s future on consumer hardware—an arena that, until now, the company has largely skirted in favor of cloud-based AI services. If anyone can bridge the gap between cutting-edge AI and empathetic design, the trio of Ive, Altman, and Powell Jobs might just pull it off.

They’re not trying to build another smartphone. They’re aiming for something that, in Ive’s words, acknowledges the “unintentional harms” of the past and seeks to offer a “more human” relationship with technology. As Powell Jobs observes, seeing a “brand new” idea go from concept to reality is a “wondrous thing.” And if this device arrives on schedule—rumored for 2027—the wonder could extend to anyone who’s ever found themselves caught in a screen’s endless scroll, longing for technology that serves rather than subjugates.

Soon, we may finally learn whether Ive and OpenAI’s vision lives up to the hype. And if it does, it could mark a turning point in how we think about—and design—our relationship with the digital world.