Introduction to the Issue
OpenAI has recently made a significant change to its website and social media channels. The company has removed all mentions of "io", a hardware startup co-founded by the famous Apple designer Jony Ive. This sudden change comes after OpenAI’s announcement of its nearly $6.5 billion acquisition and plans to create dedicated AI hardware.
The Reason Behind the Change
According to OpenAI, the deal with "io" is still happening, but the company had to remove mentions of "io" due to a trademark lawsuit from Iyo, a hearing device startup that was spun out of Google’s moonshot factory. This lawsuit has caused OpenAI to temporarily remove all content related to "io" from its website and social media channels.
Affected Content
The announcement blog post and a nine-minute video featuring Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are no longer available. The blog post, which was written by Ive and Altman, announced the deal and stated that "The io team, focused on developing products that inspire, empower and enable, will now merge with OpenAI to work more intimately with the research, engineering and product teams in San Francisco."
Statement from OpenAI
An OpenAI spokesperson, Kayla Wood, explained the situation, saying "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." This statement suggests that OpenAI does not think the trademark complaint is valid and is considering its next steps.
Conclusion
In conclusion, OpenAI has removed all mentions of "io" from its website and social media channels due to a trademark lawsuit from Iyo. Despite this, the company says that the deal with "io" is still happening and that it is reviewing its options regarding the trademark complaint. The situation is ongoing, and it will be interesting to see how it develops in the future. The removal of content related to "io" is a significant change, and it will likely have an impact on the way that OpenAI presents its plans for dedicated AI hardware.
