All traces of the joint project between OpenAI and former iPhone designer Jony Ive have been removed. The reason is quite banal - a court ruled on trademark infringement.
At first, the mention of io disappeared from the OpenAI website without any explanation, which immediately sparked speculation online about the future of this project. However, the companies soon clarified that there were no problems with the cooperation. The page, which once had a blog about the beginning of the partnership, now has the following message:
"This page is temporarily down due to a court order following a trademark complaint from iyO about our use of the name "io." We don’t agree with the complaint and are reviewing our options."
iyO is a company that creates hardware products with artificial intelligence. Currently, the startup's only offering is the $99 iyO ONE "audio computer" that is controlled by natural language voice commands.
Recall that OpenAI acquired Jony Ive's startup for $6.5 billion in May 2025. The goal of this deal is to create a "device of the future" for artificial intelligence, which could possibly be worn around the neck.
While startups have tried to create a similar device before, these attempts have ended in failure. However, Jony Ive says that predecessors, including Humane and Rabbit, simply released bad products.