Final month, OpenAI introduced it was formally entering into the {hardware} enterprise. In a video posted to X, CEO Sam Altman and former Apple designer Jony Ive, who labored on flagship merchandise just like the iPhone, revealed a partnership to create the following era of AI-enabled gadgets by way of a startup known as io.
However that launch seems to have hit a snag.
On Tuesday, proof of the partnership was scrubbed from the web (apart from the above video, for now). OpenAI has up to date its authentic announcement web page, stating that it’s “quickly down because of a courtroom order following a trademark criticism from iyO about our use of the title ‘io.’ We do not agree with the criticism and are reviewing our choices.”
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET’s father or mother firm, filed an April 2025 lawsuit towards OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in coaching and working its AI programs.)
iyO sues OpenAI
The initiator of the criticism, iyO, is the maker of AI-powered wearables, particularly iyO One, a set of earbuds that the corporate web site says are supposed to be a “pc and not using a display screen.” iyO One can run apps the way in which a smartphone does and take pure language instructions from the person. Bloomberg Legislation reported that iyO has sued OpenAI over the trademark.
Based by Ive, io is (or was) an under-the-radar startup centered on AI gadgets. On buying the startup in a virtually $6.5 billion all-stock deal, Sam Altman mentioned he envisions making a each day AI companion machine as frequent as a laptop computer or smartphone. As a part of the deal, Ive and people at his design agency, LoveFrom, are slated to stay impartial however will tackle inventive roles at OpenAI.
The deal remains to be on
In a put up on X, Mark Gurman mentioned the deal remains to be on regardless of the hiccup.
The Jony Ive and OpenAI deal is on observe and has NOT dissolved or something of the type, I’m instructed. Right here’s what occurred: they have been sued over the title IO and there was a restraining order issued by the decide. They needed to pull all supplies with the title. https://t.co/JfAxPXrC5R
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) June 22, 2025
“The io staff, centered on creating merchandise that encourage, empower, and allow, will now merge with OpenAI to work extra intimately with the analysis, engineering, and product groups in San Francisco,” OpenAI wrote within the now-down weblog put up concerning the merger. The put up didn’t supply many extra particulars, however Altman and Ive seem centered on making the person expertise of merchandise like ChatGPT extra seamless and intuitive than accessing them by conventional web and technological interfaces.
“I need this to be democratized, I need everybody to have it,” Altman mentioned within the launch video, referring to the {hardware} OpenAI goals to construct beneath the brand new partnership. Earlier in Could, OpenAI moved to turn out to be a Public Profit Company (PBC), saying the shift with related language about making AI accessible to as many individuals as potential and centered on social betterment objectives. Traditionally, expertise of that caliber takes some time to turn out to be really accessible and intuitive for big teams of individuals to make use of, and present AI gadgets just like the iPhone 16 require particular, costly {hardware} to run.
Emphasizing how scientists use OpenAI fashions to speed up breakthroughs, Altman added within the video that he hopes forthcoming AI {hardware} opens up an “embarrassment of riches of what folks go create for collective society.”
OpenAI’s curiosity in {hardware}
The merger follows a number of hints from earlier this yr signaling OpenAI’s curiosity in {hardware} like wearables and robotics. With most main {hardware} suppliers launching AI-powered smartphones (regardless of just a few drawbacks), laptops, and different tech, the house is transferring rapidly. On the extra experimental finish of that spectrum, AI gadgets like Humane Pin and Rabbit R1 have not precisely succeeded, although well being wearables that make use of AI for big-picture insights are taking off.
It is unclear what {hardware} class OpenAI will goal first. The video notes that the 2 corporations will not launch something till possible subsequent yr, although Altman vaguely mentions a prototype of an preliminary product within the video that he says is “the good piece of expertise that the world can have ever seen.” It is unclear how considerably this lawsuit will affect any launch timelines.
In keeping with the Wall Avenue Journal, Altman and Ive have mentioned digital camera gadgets and headphones as potential merchandise, however nothing is confirmed but. In a leaked recording, Altman instructed workers on Wednesday that he and Ive plan to ship 100 million AI “companions” that might be a part of a person’s on a regular basis life and conscious of their environment, sufficiently small for a pocket or desk, and as important as a laptop computer and smartphone.
Need extra tales about AI? Join Innovation, our weekly e-newsletter.
