Brit who deisgned iPhone now working on ‘world’s first’ AI-driven handset

The Brit who invented the iPhone is working on a new handset driven by artificial intelligence.

Former Apple designer Sir Jony Ive is teaming up with ChatGPT creator Open AI to build the world’s first bot phone. Investor SoftBank is set to pump in £820million to make sure the handheld device is available to all.

News of the plan comes as the UK is set to host an international AI summit in a bid ease concerns bots are becoming too powerful. OpenAI chief Sam Altman warned recently AI could do 'significant harm to the world if it goes wrong'.

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But his company is reportedly in advanced talks with Ive’s LoveFrom firm – which the designer founded after leaving Apple in 2019 – over creating the iPhone of artificial intelligence.

The pair have held brainstorming sessions about what a new consumer product centred on OpenAI’s technology would look like, sources said.

They hope to create a more natural and intuitive user experience for interacting with AI in the way the iPhone’s innovations in touchscreen computing unleashed the mass-market potential of the mobile internet.

Several different designs are said to be on the table.

Ive, Altman and SoftBank chief Masayoshi Son have discussed forming a company that would draw on talent and technology from their three groups.

Discussions are said to be 'serious’ but no deal has been agreed and it could be several months before a venture is formally announced. Any resulting hardware product is likely to take years to bring to market.

All three companies have declined to comment.

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Ive played a central role in the creation of the first iPhone which was launched in 2007 and ushered in a new era of personal computing.

But as the smartphone market reaches a plateau tech experts have been considering what might become the next big consumer electronics device.

Virtual reality headsets such as Meta’s Quest and smart speakers such as Amazon’s Echo have been billed as having potential.

But nothing has come close to rivalling the smartphone which has become an essential item for billions of people.

Ive believes the compulsive nature of many smartphone users’ behaviour is a worry.

In 2018 he said Apple had a 'moral responsibility’ to mitigate the iPhone’s unintended consequences such as addictive apps.

He admitted then he limited his children’s screen time.

The new project presents an opportunity to create a way of interacting with computers that is less reliant on screens.

OpenAI has just announced upgrades to ChatGPT including the ability to control the app through voice or by uploading an image which allow it to browse the web.

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