Jony Ive hires ex-Apple design lead for OpenAI project

Departing Apple iPhone design head Tang Tan is to work for Jony Ive on designing new AI hardware devices for OpenAI.

It was announced that Tang Tan would be leaving Apple in February 2024, but his duties have already been divided up and he is now reportedly joining Jony Ive's LoveFrom firm. He is to work specifically on LoveFrom's collaboration with OpenAI for a new AI hardware project.

According to Bloomberg, the veteran Apple designer will lead the project's hardware engineering. The publication says that projects currently being considered include devices for the home, though neither OpenAI nor LoveFrom would comment.

It's believed that the LoveFrom and OpenAI collaboration is at an early stage of developing concepts, and also hiring key staff to work on them.

Educated at MIT and Imperial College London, Tan lead the design teams for the iPhone and the Apple Watch. His long experience at Apple includes multiple patents, including a 2010 one regarding the steel bezel design of the iPhone.

Tan is only the latest designer to be poached from Apple by LoveFrom. In 2021, Ive's company hired away four designers, ranging across hardware and software.

Ive himself represented the last of Apple's famous design team that had worked on everything from the iMac through the iPhone and iPad.

10 Comments

danox 3442 comments · 11 Years

About 11 months ago

Good Luck Open AI fate will be the same as Linux.

ctt_zh 83 comments · 5 Years

danox said:

Good Luck Open AI fate will be the same as Linux.

Agreed. I think like Linux OpenAI will be incredibly successful.

9secondkox2 3148 comments · 8 Years

I don’t know. That’s QUITE the team so far.

Could be the next big deal.

I wouldn’t dismiss it.

Apple should just get over themselves and lock up an exclusive consultancy with LoveFrom. It’s obvious the real talented designers really like to work with jony.

hypoluxa 619 comments · 22 Years

9secondkox2 said:

I don’t know. That’s QUITE the team so far.
Could be the next big deal.

I wouldn’t dismiss it.

Apple should just get over themselves and lock up an exclusive consultancy with LoveFrom. It’s obvious the real talented designers really like to work with jony.

Yep. I'd 2nd that thought. But they do sometimes fall flat with form over function.

Marvin 15355 comments · 18 Years

9secondkox2 said:

I don’t know. That’s QUITE the team so far.
Could be the next big deal.

I wouldn’t dismiss it.

Apple should just get over themselves and lock up an exclusive consultancy with LoveFrom. It’s obvious the real talented designers really like to work with jony.

The same could be said of Humane, they have a lot of ex-Apple people:

https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/08/humane-the-secretive-ai-startup-founded-by-ex-apple-employees-raises-another-100m/

"dozens of decorated ex-Apple employees responsible for the iPhone’s touchscreen keyboard, elements of Apple’s industrial design and infrastructure for Apple services like iCloud, Apple Pay and Home. Chaudhri himself spearheaded the design of the iPhone’s home screen, while Bongiorno helped to lead software development for iPhone, iPad and later the Mac."

They made a $700 AI pin:

https://www.wired.com/story/humane-ai-pin-700-dollar-smartphone-alternative-wearable/

This functionality can be done with the Apple Watch in a much more widely appealing form factor. They won't ship 50 million AI devices per year like Apple does with the watch and without selfies, games, video calls, social media, mobile internet, it won't replace the smartphone.

Making new designs is obviously appealing to designers who have been on conveyer belt level tech for years but making something new that becomes a retail success is very difficult, even for people with years of experience. Movie directors don't make guaranteed hits, no matter how long they've been doing it.