Google CEO: OpenAI Scored a ‘Considered one of a Variety’ Designer

OpenAI and iPhone designer Jony Ive’s practically $6.5 billion deal obtained the tech business speaking final week — and Google’s CEO has now weighed in.

Like many tech leaders, Google CEO Sundar Pichai is main his firm by a mission to construct out its AI empire with each software program and {hardware} merchandise. In the meantime, the hiring conflict for prime expertise has heated up as corporations spend huge to execute their targets. OpenAI’s newest transfer was to usher in a not-so-secret weapon that Apple had lengthy leaned on for his design chops: Jony Ive.

When requested concerning the practically $6.5 billion deal to accumulate Ive’s secretive startup, IO, and collaborate on {hardware} together with his design collective, LoveFrom, Pichai praised the previous Apple design chief.

“Stepping again, Jony Ive is considered one of a sort,” Pichai stated throughout an interview for the “Decoder” podcast.

He pointed to Ive’s storied monitor document, which incorporates main the design of iconic Apple merchandise just like the iMac, iPhone, and Apple Watch. Though the pair have solely met a couple of instances, Pichai stated, he and lots of others within the tech business have lengthy been admirers of Ive’s work.

“I believe it is thrilling,” Pichai stated. “There’s a lot innovation forward, and I believe individuals are inclined to underestimate this second.”

To underscore his level, Pichai reminded listeners that Google, the preferred search engine on the planet, did not exist when the web was invented. We’re in an analogous second with AI, the Google CEO stated — besides he predicts that AI will likely be “larger than the web.”

“There are going to be corporations, merchandise, classes created, which we aren’t conscious of right now,” he stated.

Whereas Pichai stated he is excited to see what Ive and OpenAI’s Sam Altman have in retailer, he stated Google can be going to be “doing quite a bit” of innovation as AI shifts the business. That does not imply a thriller AI {hardware} product will substitute the good devices we use right now, Pichai stated.

Google did not instantly reply to a request for remark from Enterprise Insider.

Though Altman and Ive have not introduced precisely what future merchandise will appear to be, customers can count on a “household of AI merchandise,” the pair stated in a video final week. Reviews have indicated the pair is engaged on an AI companion system, and Altman has beforehand stated he has “little interest in attempting to compete with a smartphone.”

OpenAI went public concerning the deal on Wednesday whereas Google’s annual I/O developer convention was in full swing — a transfer that did not seem like misplaced on Pichai.

It is not the primary time the ChatGPT maker dropped an enormous announcement across the identical time as Google I/O. Final yr, the corporate introduced its AI mannequin GPT-4o on Might 13, a day earlier than Google’s 2024 I/O convention kicked off.

“I am wanting ahead to an ‘Open I/O’ announcement forward of Google I/O the night time earlier than,” Pichai stated.