What has Loveform actually made to be sold for $6.4 billion? A typeface? An emblem for the Royal Family? That's worth that much? Isn't it a conflict of interest for Lauren Powell Jobs to be involved?
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Laurene Powell Jobs and Jony Ive Reveal Why Tech Has 'Gone Sideways' in Rare Interview
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Oh, good, another one of those people. Tech is not a uniform thing. How specific teenage girls use social media is not the same across teenage girls in general; teenagers are not a monolith and Instagram is not heroin. Looking at screens and saying 'this bad' because you are upset at bad social media companies is the view of reactionary, unthinking idiots. So she's another one of those people. No surprised she owns company that employs Jesse Singal.
LoveFrom wasn't sold, it was IO. Ive created it and sold it a few months later, so it was probably just a fancy accounting trick to get him on board and to pay him in stock up-front.
He still owns LoveFrom.
On a bit of a tangent, am I the only one who thinks LoveFrom is only one step away from the dumbest name for a company?
Hey now, I have a Segway e scooter (Segway IP is now owned by Chinese Ninebot) and it does come with a lot of features and tech that other brands just aren’t doing 😂
I do think their original two wheel platform device was very cool and had great potential, it just had a lot not going for it at the time…expensive, difficult to market, etc. I really do think it was a case of good project too early for the world. A lot of people ride the unicycle style version of these Segway types and there’s no doubts they wouldn’t exist without Segway. Seems Segway (the old original version) had to be the one to fall on the sword to influence the rest of the world with its ideas.
“Startup” is the new word for funneling in Silicon Valley speak.
I feel this. The tech industry used to be predicated on providing value to the user. Providing value to customers was good business.
Today, the industry is predicated on extracting value out of user - mass surveillance, advertising, addictive exploitation of attention, extracting profit through divisiveness, rent seeking through unnecessary cloud tie ins, and subscriptions. Users have become products to exploit.
even more impressive when most reports are that OpenAI 2024 total revenues were not even that high ( in the $4B ballpark) . And 2025 that is a still a substantial fraction. And still no profits at all in sight last couple or years or next ( although OpenAI is suppose to be non-profits ... profits would be a charter violation. )
It is not a lot when other entities are throwing even larger buckets of money at OpenAI . Large amounts are not as much of an issue than lack of responsibility (i.e., it is easy to spend other peoples money when there is no blowback when things go wrong. )
It doesn't "have to" work. It will keep the OpenAI hype train going longer if it does. But if not the folks who had stakes in io before the acuqistion got paid. They don't have to give any of that money back if it fails. If OpenAI has a "N + 2" gen model in two years that runs through an app on browsers and smartphones that generates more money ... it won't matter either.
You haven't seen the acquistion video ? Don't have to 'imagine' the "this is going to be better than sex" voiceover... it is already recorded.
This spin is this is the next magical dynamic duo combo after Ive and Jobs.. Altman ( who has already been kicked out and brought back to his company) and Ive. Altman is this century's Jobs "product man' ( only it is all things magical AI products. )
Right now there is more money chasing the hype bubble. This is phase where all the weathly "tech investement funds" owners all feed at the trough of too much money and not enough common sense products to fund through .. and just skim off a healthy chunk.
Sleepless nights over a relatively small box with no screen , probably hyper minimalist Ive i/O abilities (as few ports as possible... if any. ) and a battery limitations? Probably not.
Pretty likely this is going to be more so like the version 1.0 Apple Watch and have deep symbiotic need for configuration and probably network connectivity.
OpenAI plugged into Apple Intelligence similar to how Google search plugs into Siri/Splotlight. Someone else could be tagged as the default external AI web service complement. There is no certainity that 2-3 years down the road that OpenAI will have the the AI web service that best meets most Apple users needs. (OpenAI has competitors. And if spending $6B on small box doo-hickeys ... if the other folks use money more productively (e.g., Deepseek ) . So far the hype of the AI thing is whoever spends money the in the fastest 'drunken sailor' mode will wins. Long term that very probably is not true.
A while back Altman was talking about how OpenAI was going to need more than TSMC's total fab capacity. Cook having scaled up Apple Silicon and bought the Intel modem operations and gone no where near internal only fabs probably isn't 'scared' by that kind of talk by someone who doesn't make any hardware.
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Why does it feel like AI is part of the problem, not part of the solution? I guess we'll see how it turns out...
Because Sam Altman, etc don’t create AI for it to help you…it’s created for it to help THEM take advantage of you (selling your data, you doing the hard work of training it while you pay them, etc). They make the money while you do the work for free. Total scheme and a scam
I’m sorry. The irony here is crushing. To say that technology has gone “sideways” ( which is true ) and then Jony Ive and Laurene Jobs partnering with the likes of Sam Altman is the technological version of “This Is Spinal Tap”.
Q: So Jony, what does your device do that Humane’s pin couldn’t do? I mean, the mockups look like a Humane Pin on a necklace.
A: <Jony Ive> Well, it uses ChatGPT and it has this knob on it. I wanted it to be simple and elegant. Hence one knob.
Q: What does that knob do ?
A: <Jony Ive> It goes to “11”.
Q: Goes to “11” ?
A: Yeah….goes to 11.
Q: And….what about Humane’s Pin ?
A: Well…you see…it could only go to “10”. As you can see on my device, on the one knob, you see it goes to “11”.
Q: Right
A: Right. That’s what makes it different and so amazing. It’s the only one that can go to “11”.
Q: I….see.
Q: So Jony, what does your device do that Humane’s pin couldn’t do? I mean, the mockups look like a Humane Pin on a necklace.
A: <Jony Ive> Well, it uses ChatGPT and it has this knob on it. I wanted it to be simple and elegant. Hence one knob.
Q: What does that knob do ?
A: <Jony Ive> It goes to “11”.
Q: Goes to “11” ?
A: Yeah….goes to 11.
Q: And….what about Humane’s Pin ?
A: Well…you see…it could only go to “10”. As you can see on my device, on the one knob, you see it goes to “11”.
Q: Right
A: Right. That’s what makes it different and so amazing. It’s the only one that can go to “11”.
Q: I….see.
Jony and Altman can say what they want about Rabbit. At least they aren’t being backed by some shadowy figures and there’s no subscription fees, all the while you get LAM. Rabbit is actually working on bringing value and pioneering something new, all
The while Jony and Altman are old hat trying to milk more money out of folks.
The while Jony and Altman are old hat trying to milk more money out of folks.
Rabbit is all but dead, and this will be the same several months after it appears on the market.
People don't want to carry around more battery powered crap. Niche junk for bored nerds.
LOL…a badly dressed overrated designer <Jony Ive> and the con-man of AI <Sam Altman> taking down Apple is a…take…for sure.
AI and Sam Altman aren’t the disrupters you’re looking for and for the source of your optimism
When all is said and done, please tell me this “device” is not something that could be released as a software application on a smartphone. Or, better yet a new feature on the OpenAI ChatGPT app.
Segway was needed to influence someone putting a battery on a two wheel scooter ? The same two wheel scooter design kids made in the 1930’s by bolting on roller skate wheels to a 2x4 and a couple of pieces of dowels to make a steering device ? The same two wheel scooter design that kids would jerry rig a small motor and a chain on the back to make a motorized scooter ?
Yeah…Segway…the company so innovative it took the Chinese to make Segway’s tech practical.
Reportedly Ive doesn't want it to be a wearable. Or minimally trying to avoid it being a wearable. Also deliberately trying to avoid being a watch , smartphone, laptop, or tablet also. Likely, He is looking for it to be something other than those things so that more freedom of design. ( Also, extremely likely avoids Apple's lawyers longer. )
Non-wearble and no screen moves it away from Humane Pin and Rabbit AI devices also.
It is Ive. It isn't going to have mundane physical knobs and ports. It is going to have 'magical' I/O. Why be constrained by having to provision buttons or a screen? Can be mysterious as the 2001 Space Oddespyt 'monolith'. That is likely the more 'magical' effect. ( microphone(s) and camera(s) only has minimally required to do sense anything, but otherwise a 'perfect' slab of finely crafted metal. ). Maybe a power/mute button and a charging port (if not wireless only. The ultimate in being in the post wires world. ).
Hey Jony, maybe you should have come up with more ideas that people actually wanted to spend their money on.
Hey, Laurene, what do you know about technology and vision? Thinking you know something because you were once married to a guy that did doesn't make it true any more than having stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
Hey, Laurene, what do you know about technology and vision? Thinking you know something because you were once married to a guy that did doesn't make it true any more than having stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
Ive: "I apologize for helping create the most annoying, intrusive and addictive device the world has ever known"
Several decades ago almost nobody had battery powered car keys. Now almost all do. If a small enough battery device then it isn't that much of a leap.
If there is no screen and attach something like an Apple Watch innards to it then very likely get substantially better than smartwatch lifetime. As long as it is not multiple recharge per day or some frequency different than phone.
OpenAI llikely is going to either lean on cloud servers or someone else's device for computational horsepower. They hyper large language model can't fit in anything commonly affordable and portable anyway. The box would more so be a 'key' ('terminal') to your "AI agent" servers that are provisioned out of somewhere else. This would be something convenient to put into pocket (e.g., smaller than the pocket) and walk away with. Probably a smaller essential subset of data kept local (not your corpus of documents/data/etc. ).
Chuck all the screen and I/O direction bottoms by voice only interaction. (a conversation with a smart person doesn't require using button/screen/etc on that person. Same limitations here. )
The battery is not so much of an issue as how much compute and/or connectivity (to Internet) they are going to offload from the device to make it smaller and more battery efficient. Phones have been drifting larger and larger. and the number of buzzing, notifications, distractions that come flowing out of them gets to a be deeper morass also. If actually want to talk to someone or get something done with focus , putting the phone away is step in the right direction. If the box allows you to put the phone on slilent or even leave it behind while go so something , then the 'one less battery device carrying' could be the phone, not this.
Notice how its always profit for the billionaires. These fat fish make billions off of each other while they invent the collapse of the jobs based market. There's been no draft of an official plan for what happens to the rest of us as a result of AI advancement.
AI crept in as a great way to quickly riff on writing and has unquestionably advanced to the level of an entry level person in most fields. A year or two from now this same technology will eliminate the need for internships, entry level workers and mid levels - maybe even seniors in most crafts. Those that require licenses or certifications will be safe for now. Notably those who write their own laws to regulate industry - lawyers. For the rest of us, it will be losing our job and career... and really - losing our way of life.
I know where your mind is going. The 'buck up' mentality. But this is super toxic. The AI influencers pushing the "you need to embrace AI or get replaced" is so short sighted. AI won't just augment you - the plan is to replace you entirely. If nothing is done by the governments of the world to force companies to continue to hire people to manage this AI workforce, there will be no use for us all. Companies that once employed thousands of engineers will shrink down to hundreds and then fewer. The same goes across every industry. The greed at the top will find ways to enslave this new AI workforce. Its cost efficiencies will eliminate the need to employ people who make mistakes or get sick on occasion. When everyone is out of a job, there will be none to find. AI prompters will eventually meet their own doom when the AI bots prompt and manage themselves.
And then you have those that say "you'll need to move to a blue collar job". Optimus and friends will take care of those ones too in due time. Cabs drive themselves. Food on delivery without a delivery person. A robot workforce fixes pipes and electrical lines, installs drywall, serves the rich dinner at restaurants surrounded by their wealthy peers...
And this speaks nothing about society as a whole. Art is deeply rooted in our culture. When you give the ability to craft anything at a prompt to anyone, art is no longer special. A generation of "oh I can do that in a second" will generate what used to take hours of craftsmanship from years of knowledge. You're taking away the nuances of humans and their gifts and making everything average.
Lunatics will defend it until we are all left sitting in a circle with nothing to our names wondering how stupid we were for doing nothing about it when it all started - today.
OpenAI with its billions is still trying to go for-profit. AI should be owned by all of humanity and the prosperity should be shared by all. But history has shown us that we are always left with nothing because the daft are too willing to go along with the pot so as long as it slowly boils them to death.
AI crept in as a great way to quickly riff on writing and has unquestionably advanced to the level of an entry level person in most fields. A year or two from now this same technology will eliminate the need for internships, entry level workers and mid levels - maybe even seniors in most crafts. Those that require licenses or certifications will be safe for now. Notably those who write their own laws to regulate industry - lawyers. For the rest of us, it will be losing our job and career... and really - losing our way of life.
I know where your mind is going. The 'buck up' mentality. But this is super toxic. The AI influencers pushing the "you need to embrace AI or get replaced" is so short sighted. AI won't just augment you - the plan is to replace you entirely. If nothing is done by the governments of the world to force companies to continue to hire people to manage this AI workforce, there will be no use for us all. Companies that once employed thousands of engineers will shrink down to hundreds and then fewer. The same goes across every industry. The greed at the top will find ways to enslave this new AI workforce. Its cost efficiencies will eliminate the need to employ people who make mistakes or get sick on occasion. When everyone is out of a job, there will be none to find. AI prompters will eventually meet their own doom when the AI bots prompt and manage themselves.
And then you have those that say "you'll need to move to a blue collar job". Optimus and friends will take care of those ones too in due time. Cabs drive themselves. Food on delivery without a delivery person. A robot workforce fixes pipes and electrical lines, installs drywall, serves the rich dinner at restaurants surrounded by their wealthy peers...
And this speaks nothing about society as a whole. Art is deeply rooted in our culture. When you give the ability to craft anything at a prompt to anyone, art is no longer special. A generation of "oh I can do that in a second" will generate what used to take hours of craftsmanship from years of knowledge. You're taking away the nuances of humans and their gifts and making everything average.
Lunatics will defend it until we are all left sitting in a circle with nothing to our names wondering how stupid we were for doing nothing about it when it all started - today.
OpenAI with its billions is still trying to go for-profit. AI should be owned by all of humanity and the prosperity should be shared by all. But history has shown us that we are always left with nothing because the daft are too willing to go along with the pot so as long as it slowly boils them to death.
Did anyone see the move "Her"? A screenless device worn or carried around with an AI identity..
Previous reports from The Wall Street Journal and analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed that OpenAI's first hardware device may be a compact, screenless, wearable AI companion. Kuo said it may resemble the iPod Shuffle in form factor, be worn around the neck,
"Central to the film is the theme of artificial intelligence and its growing impact on human society and reaching every part of our lives. 'Her; imagines a future where AI entities like Samantha possess consciousness, emotions, and the capacity for growth, self-learning, and self-discovery."