当OpenAI在2022年末推出ChatGPT时，许多人形容这是人工智能技术的“iPhone时刻”。
周三，OpenAI将这一类比推向一个合乎逻辑的新高度。该公司斥资65亿美元收购苹果（Apple）iPhone手机的创造者团队，此举有望开创人类与人工智能技术交互的全新方式。
OpenAI表示，它已收购由前苹果首席设计师乔尼·伊夫创立的初创公司io。伊夫及其团队将加入OpenAI，主导包括人工智能驱动计算机在内的创意和设计工作，为这家人工智能巨头开辟一条令人期待的新业务线。
OpenAI在官方博客中表示：“io团队专注于开发启发性、赋能型产品，将与OpenAI合并，与旧金山的研究、工程和产品团队深度合作。”
这笔交易成为这家估值3,000亿美元的私营公司史上最大收购案。几周前，OpenAI刚刚斥资30亿美元收购人工智能辅助编程工具Windsurfer。
io的产品细节尚未披露。但日益明确的一点是，通用个人人工智能助手的交互界面可能不再依赖手机，更非笔记本电脑，而是可能以某种可穿戴设备形式呈现。鉴于伊夫曾在iPhone设计中扮演重要角色，他正是打造此类设备的绝佳人选。
伊夫在OpenAI宣布此次收购的视频中表示：“我们当前使用的提供这项非凡技术和与其交互的载体已沿用数十年。因此，至少思考突破传统产品的可能性，本就是常识所在。”
奥尔特曼押注这位新聘人才将再次创造奇迹。如同当年的智能手机市场一样，新型人工智能设备市场潜力巨大。虽然与智能手机一样，竞争不可避免，但奥尔特曼的重金押注可能会带来丰厚回报。自苹果2007年推出iPhone手机以来，其营收与市值呈指数级增长，目前估值已突破3万亿美元。
在OpenAI的视频中，奥尔特曼对伊夫团队打造的人工智能设备赞不绝口，但他并未提供具体细节。他表示：“乔纳森首次让我将原型机带回家，在实际生活中深度体验，我认为这将是全球前所未见的革命性产品。”
当然，此次收购存在巨大的风险。据《华尔街日报》报道，收购需获得监管部门批准，预计将在今年夏天完成。无论伊夫团队最终为OpenAI推出的产品是什么，都可能面临市场冷遇。同时，为了抗衡谷歌（Google）母公司Alphabet、Facebook母公司Meta等科技巨头，OpenAI当前的烧钱速度惊人。
伊夫与OpenAI的联盟并非首个为人工智能时代推出全新硬件的革新构想。Meta的人工智能眼镜RayBan已获市场认可，促使谷歌周二宣布与Warby Parker合作开发智能眼镜。但前苹果员工打造的Humane徽章等过度炒作的产品，最终因技术缺陷在付出昂贵代价后沦为败笔。
市场看好此次联盟的前景，这直接反映在股价波动中：收购消息公布后，苹果股价应声下挫超2.5%。（财富中文网）
译者：刘进龙
审校：汪皓
When OpenAI released ChatGPT in late 2022, many described it as an “iPhone moment” for artificial intelligence technology.
On Wednesday, OpenAI took the analogy to the next logical step by hiring the creator of the Apple iPhone as part of a $6.5 billion acquisition that holds the potential to create an entirely new way for people to interact with AI technology.
OpenAI said it has acquired io, a startup founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive. Ive and his team will now join OpenAI and lead creative and design work including on AI-powered computers, adding an intriguing new line of business for what has become an artificial intelligence powerhouse.
“The io team, focused on developing products that inspire, empower and enable, will now merge with OpenAI to work more intimately with the research, engineering and product teams in San Francisco,” OpenAI said in a blog post.
The deal marks the biggest acquisition ever for the privately held OpenAI, which investors recently valued at $300 billion. It comes just a weeks after OpenAI paid $3 billion for AI-assisted software coding tool Windsurfer.
Details about io’s product have not been revealed. What is increasingly clear, however, is that the interface to a universal personal AI assistant may not be on your phone, and definitely not your laptop. It could be some kind of wearable device. And Ive, given his huge role in making the iPhone, is well positioned to build one.
“The products that we’re using to deliver and connect us to unimaginable technology, they’re decades old. So it’s just common sense to at least think surely there’s something beyond these legacy products,” Ive said in a video that OpenAI posted about the acquisition.
Altman is betting that lightning will strike twice with his new hire. The market for a new AI device, like the smartphone before it, could be huge. While there will certainly be competing devices, as there were with smartphones, Altman’s expensive bet could pay off big. Since Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, its revenue and market valuation have exploded, with Apple now worth more than $3 trillion.
In OpenAI’s video, Altman said he was impressed with the AI gadget that Ive’s company has built, but offered no details about it. “Jony recently gave me one of the prototypes of the device for the first time to take home and I’ve been able to live with it, and I think it is the coolest piece that the world will have ever seen,” he said.
Or course, the acquisition, which the Wall Street Journal said was expected to close in the summer pending regulatory approval, comes with major risks. Whatever the team ends up building with OpenAI, if anything, could flop. Meanwhile, OpenAI is burning through cash at a rapid rate as it tries to compete against Big Tech companies like Google-parent Alphabet and Facebook-parent Meta.
The Ives/OpenAI alliance is not the first to envision an entirely new form of hardware gadget for the AI age. Meta’s AI-enabled RayBan glasses have proven to be popular with consumers, to the point that Google announced its own partnership Tuesday with Warby Parker to produce smart glasses. Other efforts, like the much-hyped Humane badge—created by a pair of former Apple staffers—have turned out to be expensive flops bedeviled by technical glitches.
In a sign that investors think the new OpenAI alliance may be a winner, Apple’s shares quickly fell after the announcement about the acquisition, tumbling more than 2.5%.