Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Apple's legendary design wizard and OpenAI's visionary CEO have been quietly building the next generation of AI devices — and now, their creations might become an official 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

• Build an AI sales rep that qualifies leads with Zapier

• Shopify mandates company-wide AI usage

• 4 new AI tools & 4 job opportunities

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

OPENAI

🎯 OpenAI eyes Jony Ive's AI device startup

Image source: GPT-4o / The Rundown

The Rundown: OpenAI is reportedly in talks to acquire 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 company at over $500M.

The details:

• io Products is reportedly developing AI-powered personal devices and household products, including a "phone without a screen" concept.

• Ive and Altman began collaborating over a year ago, with Altman closely involved in the product development and the duo seeking to raise $1B.

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

• The device in question 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 come with its drama, the AI leader has repeatedly expressed interest in hardware. A unique, 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.

TOGETHER WITH VANTA

🪄 Turn startup struggles into strategic wins

The Rundown: Every startup journey has bumps — but some are avoidable. Hear from startup veterans Shaan Puri (My First Million), Chase Lee (Trustpage, acquired by Vanta), and Travis Good (Workstreet) about what went wrong and what ultimately went right, and gain insider knowledge that could change your company’s future.

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

• How to sidestep costly early mistakes

• Tactical strategies for building your initial team and culture

• Proven methods to navigate uncertainty with confidence

Reserve your spot for April 24th at 1 PM ET.

GOOGLE

👁️ Google expands Gemini Live video features

Image source: Google

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 new ways to interact with the AI through video and screen sharing.

The details:

• The feature allows users to have multilingual conversations with Gemini about anything they see and hear 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 current "live" feature works more like enhanced Google Lens snapshots rather than continuous video analysis shown in demos.

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

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

AI TRAINING

🤖 Build an AI sales rep that qualifies leads with Zapier

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how Zapier Agents can help you create an AI-powered sales representative that automatically filters website leads and drafts follow-up emails for qualified prospects.

Step-by-step:

1. Visit Zapier Agents and select “+ New Agent”.

2. Give a name, a short description, and click on “Behavior” to connect Google Forms as the trigger for your agent to capture new responses.

3. Use natural language to tell your agent how to identify quality leads based on email domains and other factors.

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

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

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🤝 Turn AI passion into a consulting career

The Rundown: Innovating with AI's new program, AI Consultancy Project, transforms AI enthusiasts into professional consultants — tapping into a market projected to reach $54.7B by 2032.

The 6-month program delivers:

• Proven frameworks for client acquisition and service delivery

• A step-by-step path to six-figure consulting income

• Students who land their first AI client in as little as 3 days

Click here to request early access to The AI Consultancy Project.

SHOPIFY

🧠 Shopify mandates company-wide AI usage

Image source: Getty Images

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 seeking additional resources and making AI a “baseline expectation.”

The details:

• 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, along with dedicated channels for sharing AI best practices.

• Lütke said that teams must now demonstrate why AI solutions can't handle work before being approved for new hires or resources.

• He also described AI as a multiplier that has enabled top performers to accomplish "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 is also 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 - New personalization upgrades and agentic actions

• 📸 Midjourney V7 - New 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

📰 Everything else in AI today

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

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

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

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

Hundreds of leading U.S. media orgs launched a "Support Responsible AI" campaign calling for government regulation of AI models' use of copyrighted content.

ElevenLabs introduced new 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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Join our next special workshop this Tuesday at 4 PM EST to learn how to create custom AI-powered workflows with Nick Huber, AI Ecosystems Lead at Poe.

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See you soon,

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