SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — OpenAI has recruited Jony Ive, the designer behind Apple's iPhone, to lead a new hardware project for the artificial intelligence company that makes ChatGPT.

OpenAI said it is acquiring io Products, a product and engineering company co-founded by Ive, in a deal valued at nearly $6.5 billion.

Ive became renowned for a meticulous design aesthetic that shaped the cultural zeitgeist during a 27-year career at Apple, which he left in 2019. He did his most influential work after Apple co-founder Steve Jobs returned to run the company in 1997, where the two forged a partnership that would hatch a succession of game-changing products like the iPhone.

The new OpenAI deal now thrusts Ive at the vanguard of AI — a technology driving the biggest industry shift since the iPhone’

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