OpenAI’s probable first device will likely be a portable smart speaker with a winning personality and features that make it seem like a living creature. The company envisions a screenless device that will “serve as a humanlike AI companion that lives in the home,” according to a new report citing anonymous sources.
While previous rumors indicated OpenAI wants to build a device to challenge the iPhone, this sounds like more of a threat to Apple’s HomePod, Amazon’s Alexa devices and other smart speakers.
Oh, and the thing might actually move to make it seem more lifelike.
OpenAI thinks you’ll fall for its super-smart speaker
With an IPO in the offing and Wall Street buzzing on artificial intelligence hype, OpenAI wants to develop hardware that weaves its white-hot AI tools into users’ everyday lives. The company reportedly is working on a handful of devices — and it teamed up with former Apple design chief Jony Ive to create them.
The company sees this first device as a “new type of home computer for the AI era,” according to a Tuesday report from Bloomberg. The smart speaker could “help control smart-home appliances, play media, answer questions, respond to messages and tap into the range of capabilities offered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT.”
Just as ChatGPT can learn from past interactions, so it seems to “know” you over time, OpenAI’s smart speaker is designed to “become increasingly personalized and proactive as it gains a deeper understanding of its owner.” It will reportedly run on GPT-Live, OpenAI’s new voice mode that seems more like talking to a real person.
A chatty device that seems somehow alive
And that’s not the only way OpenAI wants to make its smart speaker seem chummy and personable. It will even subtly move so it mimics a living creature!
“OpenAI believes the product’s defining feature will be its personality and ability to connect on a humanlike level with users,” Bloomberg said. “The speaker incorporates mechanical elements that can move on their own, creating a sense that it is alive and not just an object responding to commands. The machine also will draw on personal information such as emails to better understand its owner.”
Apple’s robotics researchers are investigating similar types of expressive movement that can make hardware seem more human.
Apple is also currently trying to pull off the same “I know you, I really, really know you” trick with Siri AI, the brain-boosted digital assistant coming in iOS 27 and the company’s other software updates later this year.
The new Siri learns from its interactions with users, pulling from personal context to answer questions and boost productivity. That same Siri AI should make Apple’s future products, including rumored smart home hubs and updated HomePod speakers, far more useful.
When can we expect OpenAI’s first smart speaker?
So, just how good might OpenAI’s first device be? The company teamed up with talented hardware designers who built some of Apple’s most iconic devices.
Jony Ive is far from the only Apple alum working on the products in OpenAI’s pipeline. The AI company has hired 400 former Apple employees in recent years, according to a lawsuit filed last week by Apple that accuses OpenAI of stealing trade secrets and other corporate subterfuge.
OpenAI reportedly wants to show off its first device this year and release it in 2027. However, Apple’s lawsuit — which seeks an injunction stopping OpenAI from producing hardware — could throw a spanner in the works.
Still, OpenAI reportedly views its rechargeable device as much more than an ordinary smart speaker. And the anonymous sources cited in Bloomberg’s report say the hardware is so different from any Apple product that it likely doesn’t violate any of Cupertino’s trade secrets.
“OpenAI internally describes it as the first of its kind: a computer built for AI to help make busy people more productive,” Bloomberg said. “It includes a camera and other sensors that help it understand a user’s surroundings and context, as well as advanced AI models beyond those available on conventional smart speakers.”
Are everyday people really hankering for a new type of AI computer that they can cart around from room to room? The success or failure of this type of device will hinge on its utility, its price tag, its audio quality and — perhaps most importantly — whether OpenAI’s team can actually create something that seems charming and lifelike rather than sycophantic and off-putting.
After all, once you have the vastly improved Siri AI on the iPhone in your pocket, you’ve already got a portable virtual assistant that can play audio, answer questions and control your smart home.
Lewis Wallace is the managing editor of Cult of Mac and author of our weekly newsletter, The Weekender.
He’s a San Francisco-based writer and editor specializing in technology and culture. He loves his iPhone, hates Siri, and appreciates any hardware that combines form and function.
Prior to Cult of Mac, he juggled words and ideas as culture editor at Wired.com, homepage editor at TechTV, news product manager at NBCi, copy editor at PC World, reporter at The (Hayward) Daily Review and editor in chief of EveryBody’s News in Cincinnati.
He earned a bachelor of general studies degree with a journalism certificate from the University of Cincinnati. While in school, he worked as the entertainment editor of The News Record and as editor in chief of Clifton Magazine.
He’s also a bass player, who’s recorded and performed around the United States with Those Darn Accordions, The Electric Boogie Dawgz and The Mad Maggies. When not writing, editing or laying down bass lines, he plays darts and serves on the board of the San Francisco Darts League.
