OpenAI may be preparing to take ChatGPT beyond laptops and smartphones and put it directly into our homes. While the company has already begun experimenting with consumer hardware, attention is increasingly turning toward the mysterious device reportedly being developed alongside legendary former Apple design chief Jony Ive.
Rather than building another tablet, smart display or traditional voice assistant, OpenAI appears to be pursuing something quite different: a small, screenless AI companion designed around conversation.
New details suggest that this unusual gadget could arrive with an equally premium price tag, potentially costing somewhere between US$300 and US$400, or roughly RM1,200 to RM1,600 depending on exchange rates.
A Small Ring-Shaped Device Built To Move Around The Home
According to reporting attributed to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the upcoming device could feature a ring-shaped body roughly comparable in size to a hockey puck.
That immediately makes it sound considerably smaller than most conventional smart speakers.
More importantly, it is reportedly expected to operate on battery power rather than remaining permanently connected to a wall socket. That could fundamentally change how people interact with it.
Instead of having separate smart speakers installed throughout the house, users could theoretically bring the OpenAI device into the kitchen while preparing food, place it beside them while working, or move it into the living room later in the evening.
Portability therefore appears to be part of the overall concept rather than simply a convenience.
OpenAI Apparently Wants Something More Personal Than Alexa
Calling this thing a "smart speaker" may ultimately undersell what OpenAI appears to be attempting.
Traditional devices such as Amazon Echo, Google Nest speakers and Apple's HomePod are primarily built around voice commands. You ask for music, weather information, timers, smart-home controls or simple questions, and the assistant responds.
OpenAI's rumoured approach appears far more ambitious.
The company reportedly sees the device as something closer to a humanlike AI companion that remains available around the home. Instead of waiting only for rigid commands, it could potentially maintain more natural conversations, understand context and gradually become familiar with the people using it.
Think of the conversational abilities of ChatGPT's voice experience, except separated from your phone and turned into a dedicated physical product.
That could make interacting with AI feel considerably less like operating an application and more like simply speaking to something that happens to be nearby.
It May Actually React Physically When You Speak
One of the stranger ideas associated with the project involves moving mechanical components.
Certain parts of the device may reportedly move automatically in response to conversations or user interactions.
That sounds cosmetic, but it could have an important psychological effect.
Humans naturally respond to movement. A device that subtly turns, tilts or reacts while someone is speaking could feel more attentive than a completely stationary speaker sitting on a table.
It would be another way of giving a screenless device personality without adding an animated face or display.
Exactly how much movement OpenAI intends to incorporate remains unclear, but it suggests that industrial design could play just as important a role as the AI model itself.
Cameras And Microphones Could Give The AI More Context
For an AI assistant to understand what is happening around it, hearing conversations alone would be limiting.
The rumoured hardware therefore reportedly includes multiple microphones, speakers and cameras capable of observing its surroundings.
A camera-equipped AI companion could potentially answer much more contextual questions.
Instead of telling the assistant exactly what you are looking at, for example, you might eventually be able to ask questions about an object sitting nearby or request assistance with something happening in front of the device.
This would bring together voice AI and computer vision in a single dedicated product.
It could also allow the assistant to understand environmental context rather than treating every conversation as an isolated request.
However, that capability would inevitably raise privacy questions as well. A camera-and-microphone-equipped AI device that spends most of its time inside someone's home would need extremely clear controls explaining when sensors are active, what information is being processed and what information is being retained.
Listening Indicators Could Become Particularly Important
OpenAI reportedly intends to include lighting that clearly indicates when the device is listening.
That might sound like a minor design feature, but on an always-available AI product it could become one of the most important parts of the interface.
Without a screen, users need some immediate way of understanding the device's current state.
Lights could indicate whether the assistant is listening, thinking, responding or perhaps whether its microphones and cameras have been disabled.
A physical privacy switch would also make sense for a product like this, although details surrounding the final controls remain uncertain.
The Hardware Apparently Won't Be Cheap
OpenAI and Jony Ive's team also appear to be positioning the device firmly toward the premium end of the market.
Reports suggest the chassis could make extensive use of high-quality metal rather than inexpensive plastic, helping it feel more like a premium personal electronics product than a basic smart speaker.
That choice would also help explain the rumoured pricing.
OpenAI has reportedly considered a price somewhere around US$300 to US$400 per device.
At that level, the company would not really be competing with inexpensive voice speakers designed to sit quietly in a corner. It would instead be asking consumers to think of the device as an entirely new category of personal AI hardware.
Whether consumers accept that distinction could determine whether the product succeeds.
People have become accustomed to accessing powerful AI assistants through devices they already own. Convincing them to spend several hundred dollars on another dedicated gadget means the experience will need to offer something meaningfully better than simply opening ChatGPT on a smartphone.
Why A Screenless AI Device Actually Makes Some Sense
Removing the display is arguably the most interesting design decision.
For years, technology companies have responded to new computing experiences by adding increasingly large screens. Smartphones became larger, smart speakers gained displays and even household appliances started receiving touchscreens.
OpenAI appears to be heading in the opposite direction.
A screenless assistant places conversation at the centre of the experience.
There would be fewer notifications, applications, menus and visual distractions. The interface effectively becomes your voice.
That fits surprisingly well with generative AI, where users increasingly communicate through ordinary language rather than learning complex software interfaces.
The challenge will be making that interaction reliable enough that users don't constantly reach for their phones whenever the AI misunderstands something.
The Jony Ive Connection Makes The Project Especially Interesting
The involvement of Jony Ive inevitably raises expectations surrounding the hardware.
Ive helped shape some of Apple's most recognisable products, including generations of the Mac, iPod, iPhone and other devices during his long tenure with the company.
With OpenAI now exploring dedicated AI hardware, the partnership suggests that the company isn't interested merely in placing ChatGPT inside another generic speaker enclosure.
The bigger goal appears to be finding a physical form designed specifically for AI interaction.
That is considerably harder than it sounds.
The smartphone succeeded because touchscreen interfaces eventually became intuitive enough to replace keyboards, buttons and complicated menus. AI hardware now faces a similar question: what should a computer look like when conversation becomes its primary interface?
OpenAI and Ive may be trying to answer exactly that.
A Possible 2027 Launch
The device is still reportedly under development, so specifications, design choices, pricing and even the final product concept could change considerably before release.
Current reports point toward a potential launch sometime in 2027.
And this may only be the beginning.
OpenAI is believed to be exploring additional always-available AI hardware beyond this first product, potentially creating an ecosystem of devices designed around ambient artificial intelligence.
That could eventually position ChatGPT as something that exists throughout a person's environment rather than something users deliberately open on a computer.
Final Thoughts
OpenAI's rumoured smart speaker sounds less like another competitor to Alexa or HomePod and more like an experiment in what happens when AI gets its own dedicated hardware.
The combination of portable battery operation, cameras, microphones, conversational AI and even physically moving components could produce a genuinely different experience from today's stationary smart speakers.
But the price will matter.
At US$300 to US$400, this wouldn't be an impulse purchase. OpenAI would need to demonstrate why someone should buy another device when ChatGPT already works perfectly well through phones, tablets and computers.
If the company can make the interaction feel significantly more natural, contextual and useful, though, it could represent an early glimpse at the post-smartphone AI hardware market.
For now, the biggest question isn't whether OpenAI can build an AI-powered speaker.
It's whether it can create something useful enough that people actually want an AI companion permanently sitting in their homes.
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