Altman and Ive's internet-breaking 'io' project just vanished, and its name is to blame

Not too long ago, legendary ex-Apple designer Jony Ive and OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman broke the internet by announcing their mysterious new collaboration. Well, try searching for it now, and you’ll mostly hit a dead end.

Interestingly, this isn’t because the deal fell apart, or that either one of them woke up and decided to bail. Instead, it’s because a federal judge told them to pull the plug… for now, at least.

The “io” reveal is gone from OpenAI, but not from X

As reported by The Verge, OpenAI quietly scrubbed all mentions of Jony Ive’s startup, the AI giant it recently acquired for $6.5 billion, called io.

Any official mention of the project, including the announcement blog post and the nine-minute video where Jony Ive and Sam Altman confirmed they’re developing a new AI device, is no longer available.

When you search “OpenAI io,” one of the top results is still “Watch the film | Sam and Jony introduce io,” but clicking on it no longer displays the content that was once there.

Instead, it now reads: “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.”

Interestingly, Sam Altman’s original post on X (formerly Twitter) announcing the project is still up, along with the nine-minute video. At the time of writing, it currently has over 5.5 million views.

Could Altman have simply forgotten to take it down, or was the post left up intentionally?

OpenAI’s spokesperson, Kayla Wood, shared the exact same notice as above with The Verge when asked for comment. OpenAI also confirmed to The Verge that the deal is still happening.

“This is an utterly baseless complaint and we’ll fight it vigorously,” said a spokesperson for Jony Ive in a statement to Bloomberg.

The project is still on, but the name is in legal trouble

Essentially, what’s happening right now is that a U.S. federal judge has issued a temporary injunction preventing OpenAI, Jony Ive, and Sam Altman from using the name “io” or anything similar.

This is due to a trademark lawsuit initiated by iyO, a startup that develops AI-powered earbuds.

What’s ironic here is that iyO also works on AI-related tech and is, in some ways, chasing the same mission as OpenAI. Though iyO is now a standalone startup, it emerged from Google’s secretive X lab, which is also known as the Moonshot Factory.

Though many were quick to believe that the project had been quietly shelved or that something had gone terribly wrong behind the scenes, the court order only affects the use of the name “io.”

Best case scenario? They win the trademark dispute and keep the “io” name as planned initially. Worst-case scenario? If the court rules against Altman and Ive, they’ll be forced to ditch the “io” branding completely and rebrand the device ahead of its official launch.

So all this really is right now is a branding roadblock — not a development halt. Altman previously hinted that the device might even ship within a year, so it seems like it’s a race of lawyers and engineers now, while the rest of us quietly spectate.

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