OpenAI's first hardware product is reportedly a screenless speaker designed to feel alive

[Slay]

OpenAI's long anticipated move into consumer hardware is reportedly starting with a portable, screen free smart speaker designed to act as a humanlike AI companion living in the home, according to Bloomberg sources familiar with the still unannounced project. The device is being pitched internally as a new type of home computer for the AI era, one that helps control smart home appliances, plays media, answers questions, responds to messages and taps into ChatGPT's full range of capabilities

What sets it apart from an ordinary smart speaker is the physical design, it includes a rechargeable battery so it can be carried between rooms, a camera and sensors so it can build an understanding of its surroundings, and mechanical elements that can move on their own, intended specifically to create the sense that it's alive rather than just an object waiting for a command. Voice interaction runs through GPT-Live, an expanded version of ChatGPT's voice mode that can listen and talk simultaneously and adapt more naturally mid conversation

The project was developed with help from more than 400 former Apple employees, including design chief Jony Ive, whose studio LoveFrom is helping craft the device, and Evans Hankey, Apple's former head of industrial design, who is now leading development. That Apple talent pipeline is directly relevant to the awkward timing here, Apple sued OpenAI last week alleging trade secret theft tied specifically to its hiring of over 400 former Apple staff, with OpenAI's chief hardware officer Tang Tan, a former iPhone product design lead, named as a central figure in the complaint. OpenAI has denied any wrongdoing and maintains the device is different enough from anything Apple currently sells that it doesn't infringe on any trade secrets

OpenAI reportedly plans to unveil the speaker later this year with a release targeted for 2027, and pricing is expected to land somewhere between 200 and 300 dollars. It's said to be just one of roughly five hardware products currently in development, alongside a phone replacement device, a wearable pendant, and home robotics concepts, arriving as OpenAI prepares for a stock market listing in the coming months and pushes deeper into direct competition with Apple, Amazon and Google in the home

Openai S First Device Will Be Moveable Screenless Speaker Built As Ai Companionwww.bloomberg.com

[AlexaBliss_Fan]

Mechanical elements that move on their own specifically to feel alive is going to be either genuinely delightful or deeply unsettling depending entirely on the execution, hard to picture which without seeing it

[Sentinel96]

The timing with the Apple lawsuit is almost too on the nose, a device built by hundreds of former Apple people while Apple is actively suing over exactly that hiring pattern