Apple’s designer exodus continues as product design chief Tang Tan is leaving the corporate and becoming a member of Jony Ive’s design agency LoveFrom, in keeping with Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman. There, he’ll reportedly work on a brand new synthetic intelligence {hardware} undertaking backed by OpenAI’s Sam Altman with intention of making gadgets deploying the newest deep studying know-how.
Tan was answerable for design for Apple’s predominant merchandise together with the iPhone, Watch and AirPods, so his departure leaves a large gap. As a part of LoveFrom, Tan will act as {hardware} design lead for the brand new AI undertaking, with Altman offering the software program working beneath. All merchandise are supposedly within the early idea phases, with a concentrate on gadgets for the house. Not one of the events (OpenAI, LoveFrom or Apple) have commented on the information.
It was already recognized that Tan could be possible be leaving Apple, however it hadn’t but been revealed the place he’d go. Earlier this 12 months, Jony Ive’s successor Evans Hankey left the corporate after just some years within the product design chief position. In all, about 14 members of Ive’s former crew have left Apple since 2019, with solely a half dozen or so remaining. Ive labored as a advisor for Apple till 2022, and greater than 20 former Apple staff have joined Ive underneath LoveFrom.
Altman was just lately fired (after which rehired) by OpenAI, partially as a result of he was elevating funds for different endeavors. A kind of was the team-up with Ive to create AI {hardware} backed by Softbank, in keeping with a earlier Bloomberg report.