Jony Ive’s next product is driven by the ‘unintended consequences’ of the iPhone

Former Apple designer Jony Ive says the work on his next product is driven by owning the “unintended consequences” associated with the iPhone. During an interview with Stripe, Ive said there’s “not anything that I can be more preoccupied or bothered by” than the potentially adverse effects smartphones have on their users.

“I think when you’re innovating, of course, there will be unintended consequences,” Ive said. “You hope that the majority will be pleasant surprises. Certain products that I’ve been very, very involved with, I think there were some unintended consequences that were far from pleasant.”

Ive spent more than two decades at Apple, where he led the design of many products, including the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and iPod. He left the company in 2019 to co-found the design firm LoveFrom. Ive confirmed last year that he’s working on a new device with OpenAI, which he seemed to allude to during this interview.

“I think even if you’re innocent in your intention, I think if you’re involved in something that has poor consequences, you need to own it,” Ive said. “That ownership, personally, has driven a lot of what I’ve been working on that I can’t talk about the moment, but look forward to being able to talk about at some point in the future.”

When talking about AI, Ive mentioned that he finds it encouraging that “it’s very rare for there to be a discussion about AI, and there not to be the appropriate concerns about safety.” He adds that he was “extremely concerned about social media, and there was no discussion whatsoever.”

Details about what Ive is working on with OpenAI are still slim, but The New York Times reported that LoveFrom is leading the device’s design with Tang Tan and Evans Hankey, who helped design the iPhone. Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have reportedly discussed how AI has allowed them to create a new device “because the technology could do more for users than traditional software.”