The AI device from OpenAI and Jony Ive’s hardware collaboration will not be a wearable, court filings showed. A new report from The Verge stated that leaders from the IO team noted that while the design hadn’t been finalised, it wasn’t an in-ear device or a wearable device.
Tang Tan, IO’s chief hardware office and a former head at Apple design also said that the device was still “atleast a year away” from being shipped.
The IO brand is involved in a trademark dispute currently with a Google-backed audio wearable startup, Iyo. As a part of their lawsuit the startup has shared an email exchange between them and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman among other IO execs.
Altman even requested to demo their product which is an AI-powered earbud.
However, IO sent in documents showing that they had looked at several prototype options that included mobile, desktop-based, wireless and wired and wearable and portable versions. The team ended up purchasing earbuds from 30 companies but eventually chose to not move forward with the wearable option.
The declaration also stated that in an earlier email Altman had turned down an offer from Iyo to personally invest in the startup because he was working on “something competitive.”
