Hardware as Poetry

Sam Altman and Jony Ive couldn't be more different, and perhaps that's why they make such a promising duo. Altman, architect of the new era of artificial intelligence, is driven by an almost messianic vision of progress. Ive, the legendary designer behind the iPhone, is a sculptor of simplicity, someone who sees silence and form as a universal language.

Now, the two are attempting something unprecedented, to give artificial intelligence a physical body. OpenAI has acquired Ive's hardware startup, io, for over 6 billion dollars. It’s not just an acquisition, it's a manifesto. A clear sign that AI doesn’t want to remain confined to software. It wants to become a physical presence, an everyday artefact.

Jony Ive won’t be an OpenAI employee. His studio, LoveFrom, remains independent, but now leads all design for the company. The mission is ambitious, to create a new category of devices with native AI, where form, function and cognition merge.

What’s at stake is not just a new gadget. It’s a potential new paradigm. Altman has hinted that OpenAI may develop its own operating system, something that deeply integrates language models with user experience. An "AI OS" that reimagines how we interact with technology, not just as an interface, but as a cognitive companion.

In this context, the question arises, is OpenAI on its way to becoming the new Apple? The new Microsoft? Or something entirely new? Apple reinvented hardware with emotion. Microsoft dominated software with ubiquity. OpenAI could become the synthesis, distributed intelligence, in beautiful, adaptive forms, deeply woven into our daily lives.

Of course, the risk is monumental. The shift from a software company to a hardware maker demands industrial know-how, logistics, patience. But perhaps it is precisely this imperfection, this resistance of matter, that will give AI a more human dimension.

In the dance between Altman and Ive there is something symbiotic. One wants to create the brain of the next era. The other, the body. And both know that, for the future to be inhabitable, machines can’t just be intelligent, they have to be beautiful, understandable, almost human.

And if they manage that? Then, perhaps, artificial intelligence will no longer be an abstract presence, but a tangible companion, made of soft lines and thoughtful decisions.

Maybe that’s the real purpose, to design the presence of intelligence, with elegance.