The leaders of Opeli and Google have lived without rent in their heads, since Chatgpt caught the world. Entering WE/W this week, Googlers were on the edge of this Altman itself He would try his program at the top, like last year, when Opeli organized the event the day before to present the advanced chatgpt voice mode.
This time Openai dropped the bomb the next day.
OPENAI Buyer Equipment Department “IO” Ive’s ions Design Studio, Lovefrom, is a wonderfully diminutive piece of SAO Sabotage, although I was told that the name means “input output” and it was decided some time ago. Even though the news about the combination of Ive and Altman, quickly moved the conversation from what was a mighty Google show at this year’s We/O. Single ads a lot about what are probably the two most crucial AI companies: Google models can be technically better and wider implemented, but OpenAi kicks all ass in the Mindshare and Buzz capturing.
Speaking of Buzz, it is worth looking beyond the headlines about what OpenAi actually announced this week: he pays $ 6.5 billion for employment of about $ 55 from Lovefrom, including ex-aple design Evans HankeyIN Tang TanAND Scott Cannon. Report to Peter WelinderAn experienced Openai product leader who reports directly to Altman. The rest of Lovefrom designers, including legends like Mike MatasThey stay with Ive, who currently designs the first Electric Ferrari in history and advises the man who introduced him to Altman, CEO of Airbnb Brian Chesky. Openai press release He says that Ive and Love from “will accept deep design and creative duties throughout the Openai.”
When the existing work of Lovefrom clients is completed, Ive and his design team plan to focus only on OpenAI, remaining independent. Meanwhile, Opeli already has the open roles of “the future of computers” so that others can join the IO team, which he brought. One Work list For a senior research engineer, he claims that the perfect candidate “has already spent time in weed teaching models to speak and perceive.” (Total compensation: USD 460,000 to USD 555,000 plus own capital.)
The abrasive time axis that led to this moment as follows: Altman and Ive met two years ago and decided to officially work together on the equipment at that time last year. Department IO was created in Lovefrom to work with a diminutive group of Opeli employees. Openai i Laurene Powell Jobs He invested in efforts at the end of 2024, when peaceful talks about meeting hundreds of millions of dollars took place to make him a fully independent company. (OPENENAI Startup Fund, which is not Openai, has also invested at that time).
Importantly, Ive ended consulting relations with Apple in 2022, a year before meeting Altman. This agreement was very lucrative for Ive, But he held him from work on products that could compete with Apple. Now Ive and Altman join forces to announce what I expect it will be AI, which will be the original AI device next year.
There are early prototypes of the device (Altman mentioned that he took one home in his own Promotional video with ive). Altman He said OPENAI employees This week he will be able to sit on the desk or be worn. Supply chain rumors Suggest that it will be more or less the size of the iPod fox, and will also be worn like a necklace.
Like any other gigantic hardware company, Ive and Altman also worked on AI headphones. Altman is set to packaging equipment as Upsell for chatgpt subscription And it provides a package of AI-First products that lend a hand reduce the company’s rely on Apple and Google for distribution. Thanks to its Apple relationship in the rearview mirror, now it seems that you cannot relate a company that it has helped build.
Meanwhile, Google shot all cylinders this week. AI mode in the Google search engine is widely implemented. His product strategy is still disappointed in comparison with OpenAI, but begins to employ a huge amount of personal data he has about people to distinguish what Gemini can do. If Gemini can hook to Gmail, working space, YouTube, etc., in a way people want to employ, it will probably stop many people from moving to chatgPT – just like Meta did Snapchat with Instagram stories.
After meeting with Google employees, I left the org chart from I/You that the company does not see the disaster on the horizon like many bystanders. There is a recognition that the possibility of buying a distribution of searching Apple devices is probably coming to an end, but Gemini is approaching 500 million users per month.
ChatgPT is undoubtedly in the search engine (Google Extecs cannot be encouraged to comment on the actual state of the volume of the query), but Google showed the desire to modernize searching faster than I expected. The situation differs from Apple, which is not competitive in the model race and suffers from a kind of political struggle, which Google has gone through mainly in the last few years.
There is also no doubt that Google is well prepared to continue leading on the border of the development of models. The latest Gemini models are very good, and Google clearly positions its artificial intelligence for the post-telephone world with Project Astra. The company also has calculations to introduce tools, such as the impressive recent VEO video model, while Sora Openai remains heavily closed due to GPU restrictions.
It is still quite possible that the development of chatgpt is endless, while Gemini is trying to become a brand. It would be a generational change in the way of using technology, which in the long run will hurt Google’s activity. For now, however, it looks like Google may be fine.
- Anthropic could not sit this week either. The company organized an event on Thursday in San Francisco to debut Claude 4 models, which, he claims, are the best coding in the world. Thanks to OpenAI, Google and Meta struggling to win the AI interface layer, Anthropic is positioned as a selected model weapon seller. He said Windsurf, who talked about the sale of OpenAI, apparently deliberately omitted access to recent models. “If the models are countries, this is an equivalent ban on trade” Nathan Benich wrote on x. (In addition, what says about the state of the industry when the alleged AI laboratory releases models he knows You want to blackmail people?)
- Microsoft Build was overshadowed by protests. This week there were several compelling buildings, including the GROK model of Elon Musk, which appeared in Azure and Microsoft, how to develop a network hydraulics for AI agents. All this was overshadowed by the protesters, who apparently disturbed companies to protest against business with Israel. The situation became so tense that Microsoft unsuccessfully tried to block employees’ ability to send internal e -Maili with the words “Palestine”, “Gaza” and “genocide”.
- I tried the Google Sharp Glasses prototype. I spent about five minutes on the prototype of the reference project of recent intelligent Google glasses. They had a diminutive low resolution wave in the middle of each lens that showed voice interactions from Gemini, the basic version of Google Maps and the photos I took. Were … okay? Google knows that this technology is very early, and AR full glasses are still in years. In the meantime, it is wise to cooperate with Warba Parker, Gentle Monster and Kering to put android XR in glasses I expect next year. With apple Now planning A similar pair of AI powered glasses in 2026 closes that the finish, which is the only main player in space.
- Employed in YouTube Justin Connolly From Disney as the head of the media and sport, the movement that Disney sued.
- Tinder CEO Faye Iotandaluno Is giving way. Her role will now be supervised by the general director of the parent company Spencer Rascoff.
- Vladimir FedorovLong -time Engineering Exec, joined Github as CTO.
- Will RobinsonFormer vice president of Coinbase engineering, he has joined Plaid as CTO.
- Stephen DeadmanThe Vice President of Meta Data Protection in Europe is departing because “Structural changes”.
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