References to OpenAI's collaboration with former Apple designer Jony Ive have been removed due to a trademark lawsuit, but their AI hardware development partnership remains active.
G. Ostrov
OpenAI has completely removed references to io — the hardware startup co-founded with renowned Apple designer Jony Ive — from its website and social media channels. The sudden changes closely followed their recent announcement of OpenAI's nearly $6.5 billion acquisition and plans to develop dedicated AI hardware.
OpenAI confirms the deal remains active, but mentions were scrubbed due to a trademark lawsuit from Iyo — a hearing device startup that spun out from Google's experimental Moonshot Factory division.
The announcement blog post and a nine-minute video featuring Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are no longer available. The original announcement from Ive and Altman stated: "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 spokesperson Kayla Wood commented on the situation: "This page is temporarily down due to a court order following a trademark complaint from iyO about our use of the name 'io.' We don't agree with the complaint and are reviewing our options."
Despite the legal complexities surrounding branding, the partnership between OpenAI and Jony Ive's team continues to progress, promising revolutionary developments in consumer AI hardware.
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