Better Offline - Monologue: Did OpenAI Steal Another Startup's Idea?

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

In this week’s monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through the murky lawsuit between OpenAI’s soon-to-be-acquired hardware wing and Iyo, a company they met with multiple times that makes a similar-sounding product with a near-identical name.  Sam Altman tweets: https://x.com/sama/status/1937606794362388674Jason Rugolo tweets: https://x.com/jasonRugolo/status/1936933761964511721 YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline and use code FREE99 for free shipping on orders of $99 or more. --- LINKS: https://www.tinyurl.com/betterofflinelinks Newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/ Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetterOffline/  Discord: chat.wheresyoured.at Ed's Socials: https://twitter.com/edzitron https://www.instagram.com/edzitron https://bsky.app/profile/edzitron.com https://www.threads.net/@edzitronSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Hello and welcome to this week's better off-line monologue. I am, of course, Ed Citron. Better-offline. Last week, Open AI abruptly pulled the promotional materials around, along with any mention of. It's $6.4 billion all-stock acquisition of Joniive's I.O. products. An AI startup that is allegedly making some sort of screenless AI device with Open AI that will allegedly launch next year. Said device will not be, according to the Wall Street Journal.

It won't be a phone, and Ivan Altman's intent is to help Wien users some screens. I love my screen. I don't know why people keep thinking that's a bad thing. But anyway, it turns out the reason that they did this is that a company called I.O. sued I.O. Products, OpenAI, Sam Altman and I quote Sir Jonathan Paul Ive. Johnny Ive. I just what a name. On June 9, 2025, for trademark infringement, unfair competition and unfair business practices. I also makes the case that these violations weren't a simply unhappy coincidence, but rather a deliberate action. A judge granted a temporary restraining order on June 20, 2025, that stops Ireland.

I.O. Products and Open AI from using its name, which has obviously put the brakes on Altman's attempt to hype this acquisition, which he had previously leaked to the Wall Street Journal, could add a trillion dollars to the company's valuation, which is, of course, bullshit. At this point, I'm going to start calling IO products, by which I mean open AI's soon to be maybe acquired hardware wing, the defendants, because IO, by which I mean the startup in question, sounds literally the same. IO has been referring to a device that they're making as a computer without a screen since, according to an archive version of their website I found, at least April 2nd, 2025. The defendants argued in their response to I.O.'s complaint that they made changes only

after seeing I.O. products, so Johnny I've thing, or Johnny I fucking don't care, and their thing when they launched, and this was right before they failed the complaint, which is actually true. Anyway, who are these people? So, IO was founded in March 2018 as part of Google X, which is effectively Google's internal skunk works R&D division, and was spun out as an independent company, company in August 2021, raising a further $37.2 million on top of the $25 million Google had already provided. I always been preparing for launch ever since. They've had an audiologist-approved thing, I think, that's come out since. But the I.O.1 device, the thing that's really the thing that

we're talking about here, which is an ear-worn screener's computer, that's meant to have launched already. TechCrunch said it would launch in winter 2024 in 2020, and of course it hasn't. And the current store page says it will launch in August 2025, but bugger me, I don't know how they would possibly raise money now. There is a company possibly owned by OpenAI that has the same name that might do the same thing. It's not great. And it doesn't get better for the defendants, because I.O also owns a trademark, one that covers everything from audio headphones, microcomputers, downloadable mobile operating system software, a bunch of other things that would make it very easy to mistake the defendant's announcement. Well, for

I.O. and the I.O.1. I mean, they have the same fucking name. They have the same name. Now, one might think this is all the weird coincidence, except it very well might not be. According to I.O.'s complaint, representatives from Sam Altman's Apollo projects, one of his many venture capital firms, met with the company multiple times, receiving technical information and the vision for the product, along with demonstrations of whatever they had at the time. Weirdly enough, in April 2022, I. I.O. was also introduced to Johnny Ives design firm, Love From, to talk about a particular potential partnership, one that Love From eventually declined. Important detail, Love From also works with Open AI. I don't know if they'd started at that point. In 2022, I also attempted to hire

Evans Hankey as their head of design. Great name there. And basically, the heir apparent to Johnny Ive Apple when I've left, except Hanky left to join Ive on a product that sounds the same. I just fucking hate these people. Hanky declined. And in their defendant's reply, framed the conversation as Hanky taking a favor for a friend, just talking to someone. Nevertheless, Hanky went on to co-found the defendant's version of I.O. products in 2023. Also, a lot of the defendant's arguments are, yeah, I was just being nice. I was just meeting with them because they were nice, because Altman himself said on Twitter, oh, I meet with founders all the time. Do you? Do they have the same fucking name as the companies you're buying? Jesus Christ. In 2025, Iyo chose to reach out to Sam Altman to invest and got the response that Altman was, and I quote, working on something competitive and that he would, and I quote again, respectfully pass, before adding that the company was called I.O. products and that Johnny Ive was driving this, which is also a quote. Otherwise, multiple people that work for the defendant's identically named company went on to try IEO's current product, as well as received

demonstrations of the upcoming IEO1 device, as screen this computer that you control with your voice. I also claims that there were multiple meetings with OpenAI representatives, and Altman himself about an acquisition, though emails that Altman has publicly shared make it seem more like a friendly gesture this time, and I would buy that to an extent. On the announcement of the deal to acquire Ives company in May, IEO CEO Jason Rogolo, Regolo, reached out to Waltman again to see you about partnering, or maybe an acquisition, eventually bringing up that there was an obvious similarity between the names. He used the words Routro, which if I was in a high-stakes corporate negotiation, I would not speak like Scooby-Doo. Now, the defendants frame Regolo and IOS's meetings as a

generosity on their part. Their generosity was so profound that they chose to meet with I.O. at least five times over the course of three years. For whatever reason, both Altman and Regolo are choosing to post about this publicly, and both of them seem like huge assholes. Regalo also posted, I have not, nor have I ever been suicidal on Twitter. And I must add, I'm not a lawyer, but some legal advice. Don't post that or anything. Don't ever, if you're in a lawsuit, don't go fucking posting about the lawsuit. I don't care if you're, some guy or your Sam Altman. You shouldn't be doing that. It's just very frustrating to watch talking to a friend of the show, Casey Cagawa, about this, and I think it gave him madness,

which is good because I like to share it with people. Nevertheless, the judge order that the defendant cease using the name IOP products until a hearing is held in October, and in general judges are hesitant to make this kind of ruling without a sincere belief that the case has merit. But in summary, this suit alleges that representatives of Sam Alman, Johnny Ive and their respective firms, I.O. Products, Love From, Apollo projects and OpenAI, repeatedly met with I.O., as in Jason Regolo's company, as a means of learning more about the intellectual property and design of its products, going as far as to suggest that they may partner with, invest in, or consider acquiring the company. Keep thinking of like a Jason Derulo bit with Regulo, but I don't know how to

say his name proper. At this point, I'm several minutes into recording the monologue. Someone else do the funny. But to me, something about this whole thing feels fishy, on both counts. The defendants' argument is that these meetings were harmless, framing Regulo and Iowa's desperate counterparties with a device stuck in development hell, begging Open AI and Sam Orman to invest in or acquire them, which is compelling-ish. The emails that Sam Ormman shared publicly, and I'll have these in the notes, they don't make Mr. Jason look particularly good, they make him look a little desperate. But at the same time, and I know this from talking to various founders about like money, is you generally don't go in heart and the bigger they are, they kind of glad handle them a little bit

because you don't want to piss them off. It's basic business. So he could have just being nice. I would actually buy this. I would also buy the defendant's argument and I think it would have a lot more weight if it wasn't for the fact that they'd met with I.O. so many fucking times and their goddamn name is identical. In fact, what makes this entire thing so ridiculous is that Altman and Ive could have named their startup literally anything else and none of this would have happened. They could have named it But Burger Inc. And it would have been fine. I.O. would never have sued them if they were called But Burger Inc. I don't know what they're doing. But I guess the creator of the world's biggest plagiarism machine couldn't fucking help himself.

While the emails that Altman has shared publicly do make Rigolo sound a bit cloying and don't feel like things you'd send somebody you have a deep relationship with, like they feel like new conversations and very generic, Iyo claims that there have been multiple other calls and emails, and I imagine those will come out in discovery, which is the part of the lawsuit where everybody has to share emails and communications. Yet for me, the most damning part is the involvement of Johnny Ives' love from in 2022. Ormond's absolutely a gadfly, and I would buy the idea that he'd meet with random people doing an AI startup. There is a history there of him randomly responding to people and meeting up with them. Sure, whatever. But why was Johnny Ives designed for meeting with I.O. in 2022?

A year before, he'd found a company with the same name that does something really similar sounding, in roughly the same time frame that Sam Alton was meeting with them. I mean, Sam Alman's represented this. Isn't that kind of weird? I mean, it is. It's extremely weird. Why, you're just this friendly? You just love hanging out?

This Jason guy doesn't seem like he's doing well. Is he really charming? Is he fun to hang out with? Jason, hit me up, baby, let's hang out. Actually, don't do that. You're in a really big lawsuit. I don't want to fucking talk to you. Stop posting.

In any case, this farcical situation will ground open AI's hardware efforts to a hold for a little bit, at least for a month. But they could just rebrand it to like, I don't know, But Burger Inc. Maybe, but just throwing that out there. Call me, Sam. And if you use that name, I'm suing you too. And while they could come up with a new name, such as But Burger, any details of the product that Lee Kerr announced will now face unbelievable scrutiny, if not by the tech press, but by me and IOS lawyers. Because that's the thing. They chose this name, and changing the name will not hide the fact that they knew some stuff about iOS products.

And I mean the plaintiff in this lawsuit. That's the other thing. The name is so similar, man. You couldn't have come up with anything? And they're claiming, by the way, oh, I.O. refers to input output, which is true. But fuck, mate, could you not have come up with anything else? Any other name? Buttburger? I don't know.

I'm going to say that at least one more time before the end of the episode. But Burger, there you go. Anyway, this whole thing is fucking stupid. I find both sides of the situation very annoying. And it's also important to note that Open AI has yet to buy I.O. products, you know, the Johnny I've startup, and is currently in the process of trying to convince Microsoft to let them become a for-profit company, which I will get to probably in next week's monologue. Until then, I just want to say that everyone in this situation kind of

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