OpenAI is buying Jony Ive's startup io Products and will bring the chief designer of early iPhones on board as creative head to develop devices tailored for the generative artificial intelligence era.

LoveFrom, the design firm founded by Ive after leaving Apple, has been working with OpenAI for two years on generative AI devices − an area where startups have stumbled due to high computing demands, including flops such as Humane's AI Pin.

With Ive leading design, OpenAI aims to pair the technology behind its popular ChatGPT chatbot with the product design expertise that made devices such as the iPhone bestsellers.

The companies did not disclose the financial details of the deal for io, which Ive co-founded a year ago.

"The products that we're using to deliver and connect us to unimaginable technology. They're decades old, yeah, and so it's just common sense to at least think surely there's something beyond these legacy products we have," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Ive said in a video posted on OpenAI's blog.

Altman said they had a prototype of a device without giving further details, but called it "the coolest piece of technology the world will have ever seen".

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It's shares fell more than 2% on the news.

The iPhone maker has been slow to roll out Apple Intelligence, a set of features with access to ChatGPT, with several advanced AI tools available on competing Android smartphones.