OpenAI's First Hardware Device Is a Smart Speaker That Sees the Room

Key points

• OpenAI is building a screenless smart speaker with a camera and sensors, expected to launch in 2027.
• The device will run GPT-Live, OpenAI's upgraded voice model, announced in late June 2025.
• OpenAI partnered with former Apple designer Jony Ive after buying his design firm, io Products, for nearly $6.5 billion.
• The speaker is one of roughly five devices in OpenAI's planned hardware lineup.
• OpenAI is also partnering with keyboard maker Work Louder on a smaller gadget called the Codex Micro, due July 15th.

Picture a speaker you can carry in your bag. It has no screen. Instead, it has a camera that watches the room around you, extra sensors that read your environment, and a voice that responds with the full conversational smarts of ChatGPT. That is OpenAI's first piece of hardware, first reported by The Verge AI, citing Bloomberg.

The device will be able to answer questions, play music, control smart-home gadgets like lights and thermostats, and reply to messages on your behalf. The rechargeable battery means it travels with you rather than sitting on a countertop forever.

The camera can recognise objects and people nearby. In February, the publication The Information described a similar prototype that could scan items in a room. Now Bloomberg says moving mechanical parts will let the device physically respond in ways that feel more human, turning or shifting as you talk to it.

Power comes from GPT-Live, the upgraded voice model, meaning a technology that can hold a fluent, back-and-forth spoken conversation with you rather than just reading out a text reply. OpenAI announced GPT-Live just days before these hardware details surfaced.

Who is actually building this thing?

Jony Ive is the designer behind it. Ive spent decades at Apple shaping the look and feel of the iPhone, the iMac, and the MacBook. OpenAI bought his design company, io Products, for close to $6.5 billion earlier this year. The hardware lineup currently runs to roughly five devices, of which this speaker is one.

There is a legal wrinkle. Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI days before the Bloomberg report, accusing the company of stealing hardware secrets. OpenAI said on Tuesday it is "not aware of any evidence that this complaint has merit." Ive worked at Apple for decades before leaving, so the timing is notable, though the dispute is separate from the device announcement.

The speaker is not arriving tomorrow. The launch target is 2027. A smaller accessory, the Codex Micro, a compact keyboard add-on built with the hardware firm Work Louder, is scheduled for July 15th and will be the first OpenAI physical product most people can actually buy.

For ordinary users, the honest question is whether carrying a camera-equipped AI companion feels useful or uncomfortable. The device is opt-in, portable, and designed to blend into daily life. How much of your living room you want it to see is a personal call worth thinking about before day one.