eNews
iPhone Air designer Abidur Chowdhury quits Apple
CUPERTINO: Apple has lost one of its rising stars. Abidur Chowdhury, the industrial designer who helped build the iPhone Air and fronted its slick launch video, has quit the California giant to join an artificial intelligence startup, the LA Times reported on Tuesday, 18 November.
The move has caused a flutter inside Apple, say people familiar with the matter, given Chowdhury’s growing clout within the design ranks. He was hand-picked to introduce the iPhone Air at the firm’s September 2025 event, appearing in a two-minute film detailing the device’s design journey, an assignment usually reserved for the company’s most trusted creatives. Apple refused to comment.
Chowdhury, born and raised in England, studied product design and technology at Loughborough University. He began his career as an industrial design intern at Cambridge Consultants in 2015, followed by a stint at Curventa in 2016. In 2017, he joined Layer Design as an industrial designer before moving into freelance consulting in 2018. Apple hired him in January 2019, shortly after design chief Jony Ive’s departure marked the end of an era stretching back to Steve Jobs.
During his six-plus years in Cupertino, Chowdhury played a key role in shaping the iPhone Air and contributed heavily to its marketing push, according to the news report. His LinkedIn profile still lists him as an Apple employee as of 18 November 2025.
His exit is said to be unrelated to the phone’s debut. Apple is already gearing up for a second generation of the iPhone Air in 2027, Bloomberg reported. Silicon Valley is now watching what Chowdhury cooks up next, as his shift from hardware hero to AI adventurer signals that the real design battles may only just be starting.
eNews
OpenAI researcher Zoe Hitzig resigns over ChatGPT ad plans
Zoe Hitzig says an ad-driven model could put user privacy and AI integrity at risk.
CALIFORNIA: OpenAI researcher Zoe Hitzig has resigned from the company, citing concerns about the introduction of advertising in ChatGPT. Hitzig, who spent two years working on AI development and governance, announced her departure in a guest essay for The New York Times, just as the company began testing ads.
Hitzig’s main concern is not the presence of ads itself, but the long-term financial pressure they could create. While OpenAI maintains that ads will be clearly labelled and will not influence the AI’s responses, she argues that dependence on ad revenue can eventually change how a company operates.
She also expressed concern about the vast amount of sensitive data OpenAI holds, questioning whether the company can resist the tidal forces that push businesses to monetise private information.
“I resigned from OpenAI on Monday. The same day, they started testing ads in ChatGPT. OpenAI has the most detailed record of private human thought ever assembled. Can we trust them to resist the tidal forces pushing them to abuse it?” she wrote in a post on X.
Her warning points to a growing tension between business priorities and ethical responsibility, raising the question of whether a company can deliver objective AI responses while also keeping advertisers happy. It also underscores concerns around data privacy, as OpenAI handles vast amounts of personal information, creating risks that go beyond those faced by earlier tech platforms. At the same time, there are fears about future integrity, with financial pressures potentially pushing AI systems to favour engagement over accuracy or safety.
As ChatGPT moves from a purely subscription-based model toward a more commercial approach, the industry is watching closely. For Hitzig, the shift represents a fundamental change in OpenAI’s mission, raising concerns that the drive for profit could eventually compromise the integrity of the technology.
