OpenAI may announce a ChatGPT smart speaker this year — SkimNews
SkimNews Take
By stripping screens but adding cameras, OpenAI is positioning a speaker that perceives room context current voice assistants can't—testing whether ambient environmental sensing, not visual displays, becomes AI's next home interface frontier.
Get the Tech newsletter
Daily tech — startups, AI labs, chips, the launches that shape the next decade. Free.
- OpenAI's first major hardware device will be a screenless smart speaker that lets users talk to ChatGPT, per Bloomberg
- The speaker will feature a camera, additional sensors, a rechargeable battery for portability, and mechanical elements that move on their own to "connect on a humanlike level with users," running on OpenAI's newly announced GPT-Live voice model
- OpenAI plans a 2027 launch as part of a broader hardware lineup of "roughly" five devices, built in collaboration with former Apple designer Jony Ive following its nearly $6.5 billion acquisition of his design firm io Products
- Apple filed a lawsuit days earlier accusing OpenAI of stealing hardware secrets; OpenAI said it is "not aware of any evidence that this complaint has merit," raising legal questions as it races to ship its own consumer device
Why it matters: OpenAI's $6.5 billion bet on Jony Ive's design shop is now producing concrete hardware: a portable, camera-equipped speaker aimed squarely at a smart home market currently dominated by Apple and Sonos. Apple's lawsuit, alleging stolen hardware secrets, lands immediately before this launch push and could directly complicate OpenAI's path to a 2027 release.
Ask SkimNews
