OpenAI, Jony Ive said to want to build 'iPhone of artificial intelligence'
Robert Way
Artificial intelligence company OpenAI, which is backed by billions of dollars from Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and British designer Sir Jony Ive are looking to build the "iPhone of artificial intelligence," aided in part by funding from Japanese conglomerate SoftBank (OTCPK:SFTBY).
The Sam Altman-led company and LoveForm, the company founded by the former Apple (AAPL) designer, are in advanced talks with SoftBank (OTCPK:SFTBY) leader Masayoshi Son for SoftBank to invest more than $1B into the project, the Financial Times reported.
With the new project, the group hopes to create an easier and more natural way of interacting with artificial intelligence, akin to how the iPhone revolutionized smartphones and brought it to a wider audience, the news outlet added.
The trio have spoken about creating a separate company that would take employees from LoveForm, OpenAI and SoftBank (OTCPK:SFTBY). Additionally, Son has also spoken to the group about having a role for British chip design firm Arm Holdings (ARM), which returned to the public markets earlier this month after having been purchased by SoftBank in 2016.
Earlier this week, it was reported that OpenAI and Ive had spoken about creating a new artificial intelligence hardware project.
OpenAI made several updates to its revolutionary chatbot, ChatGPT, this week, including the ability to "see, hear and speak," as well as the ability to search the web in real-time using a new browse with Microsoft Bing feature for its Plus and Enterprise users.
ChatGPT had previously been limited to data before September 2021.
Separately this week, it was reported this week that OpenAI has spoken with investors about an existing share sale that could value the company as much as $90B.

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