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Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Rugolo: AI device startup that sued OpenAI and Jony Ive is now suing its own ex-employee over trade secrets, ETHRWorld
Advt Advt Join the community of 2M+ industry professionals. Subscribe to Newsletter to get latest insights & analysis in your inbox. All about ETHRWorld industry right on your smartphone! Download the ETHRWorld App and get the Realtime updates and Save your favourite articles. A secretive competition to pioneer a new way of communicating with artificial intelligence chatbots is getting a messy public airing as OpenAI fights a trademark dispute over its stealth hardware collaboration with legendary iPhone designer Jony the latest twist, tech startup iyO Inc., which already sued Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for trademark infringement, is now suing one of its own former employees for allegedly leaking a confidential drawing of iyO's unreleased the heart of this bitter legal wrangling is a big idea: we shouldn't need to stare at computer or phone screens or talk to a box like Amazon's Alexa to interact with our future AI assistants in a natural way. And whoever comes up with this new AI interface could profit immensely from maker of ChatGPT, started to outline its own vision in May by buying io Products, a product and engineering company co-founded by Ive, in a deal valued at nearly $6.5 billion. Soon after, iyO sued for trademark infringement for the similar sounding name and because of the firms' past interactions.U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson ruled last month that iyO has a strong enough case to proceed to a hearing this fall. Until then, she ordered Altman, Ive and OpenAI to refrain from using the io brand, leading them to take down the web page and all mentions of the venture.A second lawsuit from iyO filed this week in San Francisco Superior Court accuses a former iyO executive, Dan Sargent, of breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets over his meetings with another io co-founder, Tang Yew Tan , a close Ive ally who led design of the Apple left iyO in December and now works for Apple. He and Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment."This is not an action we take lightly," said iyO CEO Jason Rugolo in a statement Thursday. "Our primary goal here is not to target a former employee, whom we considered a friend, but to hold accountable those whom we believe preyed on him from a position of power."Rugolo told The Associated Press last month that he thought he was on the right path in 2022 when he pitched his ideas and showed off his prototypes to firms tied to Altman and Ive. Rugolo later publicly expanded on his earbud-like "audio computer" product in a TED Talk last he didn't know was that, by 2023, Ive and Altman had begun quietly collaborating on their own AI hardware initiative."I'm happy to compete on product, but calling it the same name, that part is just amazing to me. And it was shocking," Rugolo said in an new venture was revealed publicly in a May video announcement, and to Rugolo about two months earlier after he had emailed Altman with an investment pitch."thanks but im working on something competitive so will (respectfully) pass!" Altman wrote to Rugolo in March, adding in parentheses that it was called has dismissed iyO's lawsuit on social media as a "silly, disappointing and wrong" move from a "quite persistent" Rugolo. Other executives in court documents characterized the product Rugolo was pitching as a failed one that didn't work properly in a said in a written declaration that he and Ive chose the name two years ago in reference to the concept of "input/output" that describes how a computer receives and transmits information. Neither io nor iyO was first to play with the phrasing - Google's flagship annual technology showcase is called I/O - but Altman said he and Ive acquired the domain name in August idea was "to create products that go beyond traditional products and interfaces," Altman said. "We want to create new ways for people to input their requests and new ways for them to receive helpful outputs, powered by AI."A number of startups have already tried, and mostly failed, to build gadgetry for AI interactions. The startup Humane developed a wearable pin that you could talk to, but the product was poorly reviewed and the startup discontinued sales after HP acquired its assets earlier this has suggested that io's version could be different. He said in a now-removed video that he's already trying a prototype at home that Ive gave him, calling it "the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen."Altman and Ive still haven't said is what exactly it is. The court case, however, has forced their team to disclose what it's not."Its design is not yet finalized, but it is not an in-ear device, nor a wearable device," said Tan in a court declaration that sought to distance the venture from iyO's was that same declaration that led iyO to sue Sargent this week. Tan revealed in the filing that he had talked to a "now former" iyO engineer who was looking for a job because of his frustration with "iyO's slow pace, unscalable product plans, and continued acceptance of preorders without a sellable product."Those conversations with the unnamed employee led Tan to conclude "that iyO was basically offering 'vaporware' - advertising for a product that does not actually exist or function as advertised, and my instinct was to avoid meeting with iyO myself and to discourage others from doing so."IyO said its investigators recently reached out to Sargent and confirmed he was the one who met with told the he feels duped after he first pitched his idea to Altman in 2022 through the Apollo Projects, a venture capital firm started by Altman and his brothers. Rugolo said he demonstrated his products and the firm politely declined, with the explanation that they don't do consumer hardware same year, Rugolo also pitched the same idea to Ive through LoveFrom, the San Francisco design firm started by Ive after his 27-year career at Apple. Ive's firm also declined."I feel kind of stupid now," Rugolo added. "Because we talked for so long. I met with them so many times and demo'd all their people - at least seven people there. Met with them in person a bunch of times, talking about all our ideas."--------The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement that allows OpenAI access to part of AP's text archives.
The Verge
2 days ago
- Business
- The Verge
Iyo sues former employee who shared secrets to get job at io.
Iyo sues former employee who shared secrets to get job at io. The new lawsuit says io co-founder Tang Tan admitted that he received confidential information, including CAD drawings of Iyo's ear-worn computer, from the startup's former design and manufacturing lead who was seeking a job from io at the time.
New York Post
5 days ago
- Business
- New York Post
AI device startup that sued OpenAI is now suing its own ex-employee
A secretive competition to pioneer a new way of communicating with artificial intelligence chatbots is getting a messy public airing as OpenAI fights a trademark dispute over its stealth hardware collaboration with legendary iPhone designer Jony Ive. In the latest twist, tech startup iyO Inc., which already sued Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for trademark infringement, is now suing one of its own former employees for allegedly leaking a confidential drawing of iyO's unreleased product. At the heart of this bitter legal wrangling is a big idea: we shouldn't need to stare at computer or phone screens or talk to a box like Amazon's Alexa to interact with our future AI assistants in a natural way. And whoever comes up with this new AI interface could profit immensely from it. 4 Tech startup iyO Inc., which already sued Jony Ive and Sam Altman (pictured), is also now suing one of its former employees for leaking an unreleased product. Getty Images OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, started to outline its own vision in May by buying io Products, a product and engineering company co-founded by Ive, in a deal valued at nearly $6.5 billion. Soon after, iyO sued for trademark infringement for the similar sounding name and because of the firms' past interactions. U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson ruled last month that iyO has a strong enough case to proceed to a hearing this fall. Until then, she ordered Altman, Ive and OpenAI to refrain from using the io brand, leading them to take down the web page and all mentions of the venture. A second lawsuit from iyO filed this week in San Francisco Superior Court accuses a former iyO executive, Dan Sargent, of breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets over his meetings with another io co-founder, Tang Yew Tan, a close Ive ally who led design of the Apple Watch. Sargent left iyO in December and now works for Apple. He and Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. 'This is not an action we take lightly,' said iyO CEO Jason Rugolo in a statement Thursday. 'Our primary goal here is not to target a former employee, whom we considered a friend, but to hold accountable those whom we believe preyed on him from a position of power.' 4 Jason Rugolo, founder and CEO of iyO Inc., shows the motherboard of the iyO One audio computer. AP Rugolo told The Associated Press last month that he thought he was on the right path in 2022 when he pitched his ideas and showed off his prototypes to firms tied to Altman and Ive. Rugolo later publicly expanded on his earbud-like 'audio computer' product in a TED Talk last year. What he didn't know was that, by 2023, Ive and Altman had begun quietly collaborating on their own AI hardware initiative. 'I'm happy to compete on product, but calling it the same name, that part is just amazing to me. And it was shocking,' Rugolo said in an interview. The new venture was revealed publicly in a May video announcement, and to Rugolo about two months earlier after he had emailed Altman with an investment pitch. 'thanks but im working on something competitive so will (respectfully) pass!' Altman wrote to Rugolo in March, adding in parentheses that it was called io. 4 Jason Rugolo wearing the iyO One audio computer in his ears for demonstration AP Altman has dismissed iyO's lawsuit on social media as a 'silly, disappointing and wrong' move from a 'quite persistent' Rugolo. Other executives in court documents characterized the product Rugolo was pitching as a failed one that didn't work properly in a demo. Altman said in a written declaration that he and Ive chose the name two years ago in reference to the concept of 'input/output' that describes how a computer receives and transmits information. Neither io nor iyO was first to play with the phrasing — Google's flagship annual technology showcase is called I/O — but Altman said he and Ive acquired the domain name in August 2023. The idea was 'to create products that go beyond traditional products and interfaces,' Altman said. 'We want to create new ways for people to input their requests and new ways for them to receive helpful outputs, powered by AI.' A number of startups have already tried, and mostly failed, to build gadgetry for AI interactions. The startup Humane developed a wearable pin that you could talk to, but the product was poorly reviewed and the startup discontinued sales after HP acquired its assets earlier this year. Altman has suggested that io's version could be different. He said in a now-removed video that he's already trying a prototype at home that Ive gave him, calling it 'the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen.' 4 iyO sued OpenAI for trademark infringement for the similar sounding name, 'io,' and because of the firms' past interactions. REUTERS Altman and Ive still haven't said is what exactly it is. The court case, however, has forced their team to disclose what it's not. 'Its design is not yet finalized, but it is not an in-ear device, nor a wearable device,' said Tan in a court declaration that sought to distance the venture from iyO's product. It was that same declaration that led iyO to sue Sargent this week. Tan revealed in the filing that he had talked to a 'now former' iyO engineer who was looking for a job because of his frustration with 'iyO's slow pace, unscalable product plans, and continued acceptance of preorders without a sellable product.' Those conversations with the unnamed employee led Tan to conclude 'that iyO was basically offering 'vaporware' — advertising for a product that does not actually exist or function as advertised, and my instinct was to avoid meeting with iyO myself and to discourage others from doing so.' IyO said its investigators recently reached out to Sargent and confirmed he was the one who met with Tan. Rugolo told the AP he feels duped after he first pitched his idea to Altman in 2022 through the Apollo Projects, a venture capital firm started by Altman and his brothers. Rugolo said he demonstrated his products and the firm politely declined, with the explanation that they don't do consumer hardware investments. That same year, Rugolo also pitched the same idea to Ive through LoveFrom, the San Francisco design firm started by Ive after his 27-year career at Apple. Ive's firm also declined. 'I feel kind of stupid now,' Rugolo added. 'Because we talked for so long. I met with them so many times and demo'd all their people — at least seven people there. Met with them in person a bunch of times, talking about all our ideas.'
Tom's Guide
5 days ago
- Business
- Tom's Guide
OpenAI's Sam Altman says your computer isn't built for AI — so it's creating something entirely new
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman believes the future of computing won't run on the devices we use today. A bold prediction, but it makes sense, considering how quickly technology evolves. Consider your first computer and the one you use today; they are, without a doubt, wildly different. According to Altman, our current laptops and phones were designed for a pre-AI world, and to unlock the next generation of intelligent agents, we need a 'fundamentally new' kind of computer. That's precisely what OpenAI is now working on: a new class of AI-first hardware built from the ground up to support always-on, context-aware assistants that live with you, not just on your screen. Altman believes that current computers can only handle basic AI tasks, such as autocorrect or voice dictation. However, for AI to become truly useful, it needs to understand your environment, schedule, and preferences, and act on that knowledge in real-time. That means a device that's deeply aware of context, ultra-responsive and optimized for tasks AI is just beginning to master. Tasks like helping you book travel, summarizing pages, answering emails, or even planning your day from start to finish are all types of activities an "AI computer" might perform. While details are still under wraps, here's what we're likely to see based on OpenAI's moves and Altman's vision: Imagine something more intuitive than your smartphone and more like a companion that's always working in the background to keep your life running smoothly. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. To pull this off, OpenAI isn't going to do it alone. The company recently acquired io, a hardware startup co-founded by former Apple design legend Jony Ive, in a deal reportedly worth $6.5 billion. It's also part of Project Stargate, a $500 billion joint venture with SoftBank and Oracle designed to build the infrastructure needed to support massive AI models and devices at scale. Together, these moves point to something big: not just a device, but an ecosystem including hardware, software and supercomputing all optimized for the AI age. Altman has hinted at an AI-first operating system, potentially subscription-based, where intelligent agents replace the app-based interface we're used to. And now that OpenAI is no longer 'compute-constrained,' the company has the resources to actually build it. If successful, this could mean: This is a vision of ambient computing, where AI fades into the background, while quietly making everything work better. OpenAI is going beyond chatbots to now reinventing the computer itself. If it pulls this off, we may be looking at the most significant leap in personal technology since the iPhone. Whether it's a wearable, a pocket device, or something entirely new, one thing is clear: the future of AI won't just live in your browser. It'll live in your life.
Economic Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Economic Times
AI device startup that sued OpenAI and Jony Ive is now suing its own ex-employee over trade secrets
ETtech A secretive competition to pioneer a new way of communicating with artificial intelligence chatbots is getting a messy public airing as OpenAI fights a trademark dispute over its stealth hardware collaboration with legendary iPhone designer Jony Ive. In the latest twist, tech startup iyO Inc., which already sued Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for trademark infringement, is now suing one of its own former employees for allegedly leaking a confidential drawing of iyO's unreleased product. At the heart of this bitter legal wrangling is a big idea: we shouldn't need to stare at computer or phone screens or talk to a box like Amazon's Alexa to interact with our future AI assistants in a natural way. And whoever comes up with this new AI interface could profit immensely from it. OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, started to outline its own vision in May by buying io Products, a product and engineering company co-founded by Ive, in a deal valued at nearly $6.5 billion. Soon after, iyO sued for trademark infringement for the similar sounding name and because of the firms' past interactions. US District Judge Trina Thompson ruled last month that iyO has a strong enough case to proceed to a hearing this fall. Until then, she ordered Altman, Ive and OpenAI to refrain from using the io brand, leading them to take down the web page and all mentions of the venture. A second lawsuit from iyO filed this week in San Francisco Superior Court accuses a former iyO executive, Dan Sargent, of breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets over his meetings with another io co-founder, Tang Yew Tan, a close Ive ally who led design of the Apple Watch. Sargent left iyO in December and now works for Apple. He and Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. "This is not an action we take lightly," said iyO CEO Jason Rugolo in a statement Thursday. "Our primary goal here is not to target a former employee, whom we considered a friend, but to hold accountable those whom we believe preyed on him from a position of power." Rugolo told The Associated Press last month that he thought he was on the right path in 2022 when he pitched his ideas and showed off his prototypes to firms tied to Altman and Ive. Rugolo later publicly expanded on his earbud-like "audio computer" product in a TED Talk last year. What he didn't know was that, by 2023, Ive and Altman had begun quietly collaborating on their own AI hardware initiative. "I'm happy to compete on product, but calling it the same name, that part is just amazing to me. And it was shocking," Rugolo said in an interview. The new venture was revealed publicly in a May video announcement, and to Rugolo about two months earlier after he had emailed Altman with an investment pitch. "thanks but im working on something competitive so will (respectfully) pass!" Altman wrote to Rugolo in March, adding in parentheses that it was called io. Altman has dismissed iyO's lawsuit on social media as a "silly, disappointing and wrong" move from a "quite persistent" Rugolo. Other executives in court documents characterized the product Rugolo was pitching as a failed one that didn't work properly in a demo. Altman said in a written declaration that he and Ive chose the name two years ago in reference to the concept of "input/output" that describes how a computer receives and transmits information. Neither io nor iyO was first to play with the phrasing - Google's flagship annual technology showcase is called I/O - but Altman said he and Ive acquired the domain name in August 2023. The idea was "to create products that go beyond traditional products and interfaces," Altman said. "We want to create new ways for people to input their requests and new ways for them to receive helpful outputs, powered by AI." A number of startups have already tried, and mostly failed, to build gadgetry for AI interactions. The startup Humane developed a wearable pin that you could talk to, but the product was poorly reviewed and the startup discontinued sales after HP acquired its assets earlier this year. Altman has suggested that io's version could be different. He said in a now-removed video that he's already trying a prototype at home that Ive gave him, calling it "the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen." Altman and Ive still haven't said is what exactly it is. The court case, however, has forced their team to disclose what it's not. "Its design is not yet finalized, but it is not an in-ear device, nor a wearable device," said Tan in a court declaration that sought to distance the venture from iyO's product. It was that same declaration that led iyO to sue Sargent this week. Tan revealed in the filing that he had talked to a "now former" iyO engineer who was looking for a job because of his frustration with "iyO's slow pace, unscalable product plans, and continued acceptance of preorders without a sellable product." Those conversations with the unnamed employee led Tan to conclude "that iyO was basically offering 'vaporware' - advertising for a product that does not actually exist or function as advertised, and my instinct was to avoid meeting with iyO myself and to discourage others from doing so." IyO said its investigators recently reached out to Sargent and confirmed he was the one who met with Tan. Rugolo told the he feels duped after he first pitched his idea to Altman in 2022 through the Apollo Projects, a venture capital firm started by Altman and his brothers. Rugolo said he demonstrated his products and the firm politely declined, with the explanation that they don't do consumer hardware investments. That same year, Rugolo also pitched the same idea to Ive through LoveFrom, the San Francisco design firm started by Ive after his 27-year career at Apple. Ive's firm also declined. "I feel kind of stupid now," Rugolo added. "Because we talked for so long. I met with them so many times and demo'd all their people - at least seven people there. Met with them in person a bunch of times, talking about all our ideas." Elevate your knowledge and leadership skills at a cost cheaper than your daily tea. Why this one from 'Dirty Dozen', now in Vedanta fold, is again in a mess Can Indian IT protect its high valuation as AI takes centre stage? Engine fuel switches or something else? One month on, still no word on what crashed AI 171 As GenAI puts traditional BPO on life support, survival demands a makeover Stock Radar: ITC Hotels hits fresh record high in July – time to buy or book profits? 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