OpenAI eyes Jony Ive’s secretive startup

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Apple’s legendary design wizard and OpenAI’s visionary CEO have been quietly constructing the following generation of AI devices — and now, their creations might develop into an official a part of the OpenAI family.

With concepts like “phones without screens” in development and former Apple execs on the design front, could an OpenAI device be the ‘iPhone moment’ that AI hardware desperately needs?

In today’s AI rundown:

• OpenAI eyes Jony Ive’s AI device startup

• Google expands Gemini Live video features

• Construct an AI sales rep that qualifies leads with Zapier

• Shopify mandates company-wide AI usage

• 4 latest AI tools & 4 job opportunities

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

OPENAI

🎯 OpenAI eyes Jony Ive’s AI device startup

The Rundown: OpenAI is reportedly in talks to accumulate io Products, a secretive AI hardware startup led by former Apple design chief Jony Ive and backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, potentially valuing the corporate at over $500M.

The main points:

• io Products is reportedly developing AI-powered personal devices and household products, including a “phone with out a screen” concept.

• Ive and Altman began collaborating over a yr ago, with Altman closely involved within the product development and the duo looking for to boost $1B.

• Several outstanding former Apple executives, including Tang Tan (who previously led iPhone hardware design) and Evans Hankey, have also joined the project.

• The device in query is reportedly built by io Products, designed by Ive’s studio LoveFrom, and powered by OpenAI’s AI models.

Why it matters: While OpenAI’s acquisition of an Altman-associated startup would include its drama, the AI leader has repeatedly expressed interest in hardware. A novel, powerful OpenAI wearable or device would potentially be an ‘iPhone’ moment for AI hardware, especially as attempts from others have left plenty to be desired.

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On this live session with Vanta, you’ll learn:

• sidestep costly early mistakes

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GOOGLE

👁️ Google expands Gemini Live video features

The Rundown: Google just announced an expanded rollout of Gemini Live’s “Project Astra” capabilities, bringing real-time visual AI features to more Android devices and introducing latest ways to interact with the AI through video and screen sharing.

The main points:

• The feature allows users to have multilingual conversations with Gemini about anything they see and listen to through their phone’s camera or via screen sharing.

• The feature is rolling out today to all Pixel 9 and Samsung Galaxy S25 devices, with Samsung offering it at no additional cost to their flagship users.

• Initial testing revealed the present “live” feature works more like enhanced Google Lens snapshots quite than continuous video evaluation shown in demos.

• Project Astra was initially revealed at Google I/O last May, with the feature rolling out for the primary time last month to Advanced subscribers.

Why it matters: AI continues to achieve more capabilities to see and understand the world around us — and while this implementation might not be the complete Astra we initially saw, real-time visual evaluation is coming quickly. Imagining this tech tied into smartglasses or wearables is perhaps the last word final form that unlocks fully context-aware assistants.

AI TRAINING

🤖 Construct an AI sales rep that qualifies leads with Zapier

The Rundown: On this tutorial, you’ll find out how Zapier Agents can show you how to create an AI-powered sales representative that routinely filters website leads and drafts follow-up emails for qualified prospects.

Step-by-step:

1. Visit Zapier Agents and choose “+ Latest Agent”.

2. Give a reputation, a brief description, and click on on “Behavior” to attach Google Forms because the trigger on your agent to capture latest responses.

3. Use natural language to inform your agent find out how to discover quality leads based on email domains and other aspects.

4. Configure your agent to routinely create personalized email drafts in Gmail for qualified leads.

Pro tip: We just did an intensive workshop on constructing Zapier Agents at The Rundown University, led by Jane Zhang and Anna Marie Clifton from the Zapier team.

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• Proven frameworks for client acquisition and repair delivery

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SHOPIFY

🧠 Shopify mandates company-wide AI usage

The Rundown: Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke released an internal memo mandating AI proficiency across the commerce giant, declaring that teams must prove AI can’t do the job before looking for additional resources and making AI a “baseline expectation.”

The main points:

• The memo establishes “reflexive AI usage” as a baseline expectation for all employees, with AI competency now included in performance evaluations.

• Shopify is providing access to AI tools like Copilot, Cursor, and Claude for code development, together with dedicated channels for sharing AI best practices.

• Lütke said that teams must now exhibit why AI solutions cannot handle work before being approved for brand spanking new hires or resources.

• He also described AI as a multiplier that has enabled top performers to perform “implausible tasks” and achieve “100X the work”.

Why it matters: The memo highlights a growing divide in corporate AI strategies — while some are banning AI entirely or moving slowly, forward-thinking firms like Shopify are treating AI adoption as non-negotiable. Its use can be clearly becoming a direct alternative to hiring, with Lutke asking what AI can handle before adding more humans.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• 🦙 Llama 4 – Meta’s newest family of open-weights AI models

• 🤖 Microsoft Copilot – Latest personalization upgrades and agentic actions

• 📸 Midjourney V7 – Latest Draft Mode for fast, voice-enabled creation

• 🧠 EverTutor Live – AI-powered voice tutor that teaches, adapts, and interacts

💼 AI Job Opportunities

• 💻 UiPath – Software Engineer II

• 🩺 Hippocratic AI – Clinical Customer Success Executive

• 💼 OpenAI – Director of Finance, Strategic Initiatives

• 📣 Cresta – Senior Demand Generation Manager

📰 Every part else in AI today

Meta GenAI lead Ahmad Al-Dahle posted a response to claims the corporate trained Llama 4 on test sets to enhance benchmarks, saying that’s “simply not true.”

Runway released Gen-4 Turbo, a faster version of its latest AI video model that may produce 10-second videos in only 30 seconds.

Google expanded AI Mode to more users and added multimodal search, enabling users to ask complex questions on images using Gemini and Google Lens.

Krea secured $83M in funding, with the corporate aiming so as to add audio and enterprise features to its unified AI creative platform.

Tons of of leading U.S. media orgs launched a “Support Responsible AI” campaign calling for presidency regulation of AI models’ use of copyrighted content.

ElevenLabs introduced latest MCP server integration, enabling platforms like Claude to access AI voice capabilities and create automated agents.

University of Missouri researchers developed a starfish-shaped wearable heart monitor that achieves 90% accuracy in detecting heart issues with AI-powered sensors.

COMMUNITY

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See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Alvaro, and Jason—The Rundown’s editorial team