In a conversation that felt part TED Talk, part campfire storytelling, Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Steve Jobs, brought OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, and former Apple designer, Jony Ive, onstage this week to talk about the AI-powered device they’re secretly building. And while they refused to actually show the thing — or even describe it — the hints were enough to send imaginations running.
The trio appeared at the end of a Demo Day event as part of Jobs’ company, Emerson Collective, in San Francisco, reflecting on creativity, the city’s strange magic and why the partnership between OpenAI and Ive’s design studio, LoveForm, has turned into a kind of tech soulmate situation.
A device that feels like a lake cabin, not Times Square
Altman said today’s gadgets feel like walking through Times Square — flashing lights, buzzing notifications, endless demands for attention. The new device? He hopes it feels like “sitting in the most beautiful cabin by a lake,” calm and smart enough to handle life in the background without demanding constant taps, swipes or dopamine hits.
Ive also said the device should be here in less than two years.
Jony Ive wants you to smile
If Altman is the AI brain, Ive is the soul. He talked about rejecting “products that are like a dog wagging their tail in your face.”
Altman insisted instead on a tool that’s so simple and inviting you almost want to bite it.
Altman admitted that one early prototype was exciting, “but I did not have any feeling of like, I want to pick up that thing and take a bite out of it.”
Ive, known for helping design the iPhone, iPad, iMac, Apple Watch and AirPods, said this device shouldn’t feel intimidating or show off how hard it was to build. It should feel obvious.
“We are going to make people smile,” he told Altman early in the process — a non-negotiable design rule that has apparently stuck.
They started with zero product ideas — by design
Instead of beginning with sketches or feature lists, the teams spent months studying everything but technology — relationships, human behavior, intelligence and values.
And what type of product does Ive think is brilliantly designed that brings him joy?
“A spoon.”
Asked which object he wished he’d designed, he said: “A zipper.”
Then he delivered a quick discourse about pockets.
So … what is the device?
They didn’t say.
Not the shape.
Not the size.
Not even whether it’s a phone, glasses, a wearable or something new entirely.
They just promised it will be:
- Simple
- Smart enough to fade into the background
- Full of joy and whimsy
- Made to feel “inevitable” once you see it
- Something that might make people say, “That’s it?”
- People will want to take a bite out of it
Which, coming from the designer of the iPhone and the CEO of OpenAI, is just enough detail to keep the tech world buzzing — and guessing — until they’re ready to show the finished product.
Whenever that is.