OpenAI has pulled a much-discussed video selling the friendship between CEO Sam Altman and legendary Apple designer Jony Ive (plus, by the way, OpenAI’s $6.5 billion deal to amass Ive and Altman’s machine startup io) from its web site and YouTube web page.
Does that counsel one thing is amiss with the acquisition, or with plans for Ive to steer design work at OpenAI? Not precisely, in response to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who stories that the “deal is on monitor and has NOT dissolved or something of the type.” As a substitute, he mentioned a decide has issued a restraining order over the io identify, forcing the corporate to drag all supplies that used it.
OpenAI subsequently confirmed that is the case, updating the previous announcement web page with the assertion, “This web page is briefly down because of a courtroom order following a trademark grievance from iyO about our use of the identify ‘io.’ We don’t agree with the grievance and are reviewing our choices.”
The corporate mentioned this doesn’t have an effect on the cope with io.
The iyO in query emerged from the Alphabet X “moonshot manufacturing facility,” and its first introduced product is a set of generative AI-powered earbuds. An earlier report at Bloomberg Regulation famous that iyO had introduced a trademark lawsuit towards OpenAI, with the decide suggesting she’s open to the corporate’s argument that OpenAI’s promotional video may already be creating shopper confusion.
For now, at the very least, the video stays viewable on X.
This submit has been up to date with affirmation from OpenAI.