How AI Is Transforming Our Lives and the Way We Do Business
Technology is evolving at an accelerating pace, and AI in particular is poised to fundamentally transform how we live and do business. But no matter how excellent the technology, it cannot deliver its true value without an "interface" to bring it to people. The dialogue between Jony Ive — who led design at Apple for nearly 30 years — and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman offers deep insight into this question.
Their collaboration deepened in earnest with the evolution of ChatGPT. After leaving Apple, Jony Ive had been building a creative team with diverse expertise — industrial designers, architects, graphic designers, UI designers — but its true purpose became clear only with the arrival of the AI era. What they are pursuing is not mere technological innovation. It is the creation of tools that bring genuine human happiness and fulfillment. This article explores the essential thinking about product development and design in the AI era that can be read from this dialogue.
A 30-Year Career That Led to a New Challenge in the AI Era Craft and Care — Ive's Unwavering "Beauty for People" The Future of AI and Design — How to Identify the "Right Direction" Redesigning Technology for Human Wellbeing
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A 30-Year Career That Led to a New Challenge in the AI Era
When Jony Ive left Apple roughly six years ago, he had a clear vision in mind: the ambitious goal of building the world's best creative team. He gathered talent from diverse specializations — industrial design, architecture, graphic design, user interface design — and organized an interdisciplinary team. Initially, however, he did not have a clear answer to "why create this team." Jony Ive has reflected that he started without a defined purpose, searching for a way of designing that would make people's lives better.
The turning point came three years ago, with the launch of ChatGPT. In that moment, the meaning of the past six years of work suddenly came into focus. The arrival of AI as a revolutionary technology illuminated the reason for the team they had built. Prompted by the evolution of ChatGPT, the two naturally started reaching out to each other and began discussing how to bring AI technology to people.
In the course of their collaboration, what Sam Altman has been consistently impressed by is the unique creative process of Jony Ive and his team. The two discuss the problem space and consider what the technology makes possible and what people need. Then, weeks later, Jony Ive's team comes back with a completely new idea — "one that is obviously right, simple and beautiful, that always should have been that way, but was impossible to conceive of until now."
What Sam Altman most wants to understand is the core of this creative process. The phase of exploring the problem and understanding how people interact, how different materials function, what feels natural and what doesn't, is comprehensible. The phase of refining a product is also comprehensible. But the middle part — "generating an entirely new idea" — remains a mystery.
Jony Ive's response to this question first emphasizes the importance of motivation and drive. What drives their team is a love of humanity — a fundamental belief in wanting to help people, that humanity deserves something better. Without the right motivation and drive, he believes, no matter how hard you work, you will ultimately end up in an uncomfortable place.
Next, Jony Ive talks about attention to history and the past. In the rush to understand the future, he pays a great deal of attention to history. Humans are wise — they did not suddenly become wise today. Not carefully studying the past is, he believes, the most foolish arrogance. The team does a great deal of research, but in the learning process does not easily accept received wisdom. The persistent habit of always asking "why" is crucial.
And ultimately, it comes down to ideas. Ideas can become very powerful, but they always begin in a tentative, quiet, inherently fragile form. Many team members have worked together for 25 years, and that trust and shared history creates an atmosphere where ideas that are barely expressible can be gently explored. When you try to express what's in your mind in the form of words, everything depends on with whom and how you do it.
The creative process involves accepting the vulnerability of its unpredictability while doing rigorous, difficult work to increase the probability that good ideas emerge. And crucially, the team goes through a great deal of trial and error internally, but only shares ideas that have taken shape after careful deliberation with the outside world. Everything Sam Altman sees is invariably impressive ideas.
Craft and Care — Ive's Unwavering "Beauty for People"
Sam Altman notes Jony Ive's extraordinary obsession with "craft" in the design process. His seriousness — from very early in the design process — about millimeter-scale subtle differences, and how the most delicate differences in materials change one's relationship with technology, is unlike anything else. What role does this craftsmanship play in exploring new ideas?
For Jony Ive, craft means a mindset of caring about what isn't visible. How you behave when not in public shows who you are. Obsession with detail is sometimes comfortable work, but it is often inconvenient. If you only care when it's convenient, what does that mean?
After years of experience, Jony Ive is convinced that people sense "that someone cared." That is not always right, but just as people sense care, they also sense carelessness. When someone is only thinking about money or the schedule rather than the customer, it is immediately obvious.
For him, craft is itself the act of giving form to care for people.
What is it, then, that motivates and drives Jony Ive himself? First, the possibility that he has not encountered before in his career — the opportunity presented by the capability AI technology brings. He senses an affordance (a possibility for action) that he has not experienced before. But that is only part of the story.
Another major motivation is the recognition that our current relationship with technology is not an easy one. On the contrary, we have a difficult relationship with technology. Jony Ive sees AI as an important opportunity to reconstruct the human-centered technology experience. AI is a chance to use this remarkable capability to directly confront the sense of overwhelm and despair that people currently feel, and the tools that are partly causing it.
Sam Altman said that "because current devices are good enough, you really need a reason to make something new." Current devices are excellent, and the versatility of smartphones is incredibly good. To do something new, you truly need a compelling reason. So what convinced Jony Ive that "there is something worth pursuing here"?
Jony Ive says the wonder of multi-touch technology was that it could support a user interface that didn't have to be compromised for each application. It was the best interface for enabling a general-purpose device — whether smartphone or tablet.
But you can also look at the question in reverse. The assumption of delivering breathtaking technology through old legacy products from decades ago is, he believes, absurd. This is the most compelling, the most exciting technology and capability he has ever experienced. How we connect to this capability, and the nature of that connection, is of paramount importance.
The Future of AI and Design — How to Identify the "Right Direction"
Sam Altman poses an important question to Jony Ive: "How can we know we're going in the right direction? What do we want people to feel when they use these devices? What should they feel is different from technology from decades ago? And what does it mean to build this in a way we can truly be proud of?"
Jony Ive believes that when trying to solve a complex problem as a designer, it is his and the team's job. He does not want to wag his tail and boast "look, it was hard to solve this, but I did it." If the solution is wise, it should simply work — appear inevitable, appear obvious, appear as if there could be no other rational solution.
The feeling of "of course, that's what you'd do" is what matters. Jony Ive is always in tension about this. He wishes there were inherent fanfare and trumpets, but experience shows that when people look at something and think "well, of course — why did it take so long?" that's what actually happens.
But there is more to it than that. Jony Ive has lived in San Francisco since 1992 and has witnessed many changes in Silicon Valley. One thing he misses — perhaps the word "humor" is too much — is that we all take ourselves so seriously that it can be a little overwhelming.
What they are working on is, indeed, serious. The impact and consequences of not paying attention and not being careful are truly frightening. But when it comes to the devices and interfaces they design — if they can't make people smile, if it becomes just something serious and exclusive, Jony Ive believes that creates a major disadvantage.
Sam Altman says one of the wonderful things about working with Jony Ive is his ability to bring playfulness and joy to the most serious matters, making the whole thing approachable and very different. Jony Ive recalls their first meeting. He usually doesn't take notes when meeting people — wouldn't that be a little strange? But at that meeting, he was. One of the things Sam Altman said was that "computers are beginning to think."
They were clearly discussing a level of extraordinary intelligence. And Jony Ive's frame of reference naturally becomes the interface with other members of our species. When that is without humor, it is also not efficient. If it's not enjoyable, you tend not to do things with a little more energy and spirit.
About unexpected challenges, Jony Ive acknowledges they exist. The pace of change and the pace of progress is unlike anything he has ever experienced. He wishes he were 20 years younger. As a designer, he has spent much of his time creating momentum — using experience to think about how to generate the momentum to produce ideas. That is part of his work.
But this time, for the first time, that momentum is so extraordinary that it has become a challenge. The momentum of the technology, and the momentum of the OpenAI team and LoveFrom (Jony Ive's company), is almost overwhelming. And the team is simultaneously exploring multiple directions while searching for compelling new product ideas.
The challenge is to narrow the focus. Jony Ive used to be good at this, but has somewhat lost confidence because there are simply too many options. If there were clearly three great things and everything else was not so great, it would be easy — but that's not the case. Clearly they are designing a product family, but what matters is to carefully and thoughtfully choose what to focus on and not be distracted.
In the OpenAI team, there are new discoveries and developments every week, which is so stimulating that it is hard to concentrate. Week after week, something new happens. Narrowing the field of view somewhat is necessary to complete the first one, then move on, and then the third and fourth.
When developers in the audience — who face similar dizzying challenges while trying to build this kind of world — asked for advice, Jony Ive first touches on the equalizing aspect. There is something very equalizing about what is happening now. It is new for all of us.
If someone said "I am very confident, I have decades of experience with this," that would clearly be absurd. There is something egalitarian, strangely inclusive, about what is happening here. And to succeed, you must be curious, inquisitive, and eager to learn. These are personally very healthy ways to be, but they are also important for innovation.
The advice Jony Ive personally wrestles with is asking himself every day: Where is your experience relevant? Where do 30 or 40 years of experience help? But at the same time, you need to be clear about where it is not relevant, where it is actually an obstacle or a barrier.
It is a great comfort and encouragement that we are all in this together. The playing field is quite leveled. And it is important to be genuinely curious about why you hold certain beliefs. In his sense, dogma — separate from values, dogma related to creation or engineering — seems out of place. He always thinks it's out of place, but here it would be particularly unsuccessful.
Sam Altman recalls something Jony Ive said a long time ago: that he is not even sure what an operating system or UI (as we traditionally think of it) would mean in the future. Does he have new thoughts on that kind of thinking, and on how to think about this very different new world?
Jony Ive says that as a team, they have gone very broadly and also very deeply in their research. But regarding the nature of connection to activity, he was struck by an article he recently read about how important the nature of your connection to an activity is. Even an activity that appears boring and repetitive — like gardening — can become the most therapeutic and enlightening thing, depending on how you engage with it. Jony Ive loves gardening, so he strongly resonated with this.
The team has been trying to deeply understand the "connections" and "ways of engaging" between people — how refined and nuanced they are. But also how intertwined our ways of thinking are with other devices and tools. How important the role of other tools is when trying to connect. And there are also very task-specific things, like using scissors — beautiful, simple, focused, applicable.
All the clues and pointers are there. They are simply trying to put them together. But it is an idea, a vision of what makes sense. And reaching that point comes only through being very curious and nimble. Both know that humility is important — to be open to realizing "this is not the right direction, change is needed."
AI technology has fundamentally changed how code is written over the past year. How people wrote code a year ago and how they write it now is remarkably different. When asked whether this is happening or is expected to happen in the design process as well, Jony Ive answers honestly.
As a team, they struggle with being so immersed in their work that they need to make time to embrace new tools and seek their help. One thing Jony Ive has always found is that when their own tools become irrelevant, that is an affirmation that what they are working on is truly new. The design team has a persistence of having things they want to explore, but at present struggling to explore them.
But that is a wonderful thing. It means — as has happened repeatedly — they have to build their own tools. This is an area where he personally feels a little guilty and strongly wants to push further.
Redesigning Technology for Human Wellbeing
As a final question, Sam Altman asks about the values people find valuable in tools, and the values Jony Ive wants to express in his work. AI will clearly change the world in various ways, some of them very large. What is he most hopeful to get right as we go through this technological revolution?
What Jony Ive most wants is:
That these tools make people happier, more fulfilled, more peaceful, less anxious, and less disconnected
That productivity matters too, but that the uncomfortable relationship with technology of the past 20 years is fundamentally changed
That we do not accept the current state as given, and reject the idea that the future lies on a straight line from the past
Jony Ive says he cares about productivity and genuinely does. But for the past 20 years, the relationship with technology having been uncomfortable is more than enough of an understatement. The data shows it.
Jony Ive strongly believes that the relationship between technology and humanity can be fundamentally changed.
He truly believes it can happen. He believes it from the heart.
What this dialogue shows is a new paradigm for product development in the AI era. The collaboration between Jony Ive and Sam Altman suggests one answer to the most important challenge facing business leaders and developers: the harmony of technology and humanity.
In a rapidly changing environment, what is required of us is flexibility — leveraging past experience without being bound by it. And most importantly, having a clear sense of purpose: that technology should make people happier and more fulfilled.
Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cKbPLzNYws
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