OpenAI’s first foray into hardware devices is reportedly a mobile smart speaker with integrated AI capabilities that can sync with ChatGPT to provide other home AI services.
Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that the device, which is currently in development, has a screenless design and is being touted internally as a “human-like AI companion that lives in your home.”
OpenAI has long said it wants to launch hardware products, and some rumors suggest it wants to launch its own mobile phone, a move that would put it in competition with Apple.
The move comes as the tech industry raises expectations for consumer AI hardware more broadly. Hark, the AI lab founded by Brett Adcock, raised an oversubscribed Series A of $700 million in May at a valuation of $6 billion to build what it calls “personal intelligence,” a unique AI model combined with custom hardware designed as a “universal interface between humans and machines.” The company has yet to provide details about the device’s form factor, underscoring how much capital it has chasing the category even before the product ships.
OpenAI’s new device sounds like a departure from traditional smart speakers — sources told Bloomberg that it has a “personality” and can actively learn about its owner over time to provide more personalized service. Officials say the machine can access a user’s digital life and extract emails and other information.
The device is also bizarrely described as containing “mechanical elements that can move on their own,” and the Bloomberg report includes details that the device is designed to “feel like a companion and be a physical representation of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.”
The device was developed with help from a number of former Apple engineers who helped “create products like the iPhone and Mac,” Bloomberg writes. In fact, OpenAI may be launching a new hardware product line, but the company is currently facing difficulties over hardware-related legal issues.
Apple sued OpenAI last week, accusing the AI company of stealing trade secrets. Apple further argued that the allegations involved in the lawsuit are just the “tip of the iceberg” and that more wrongdoing will be uncovered during the legal discovery process. OpenAI denies wrongdoing.
Citing anonymous sources familiar with OpenAI’s plans, Bloomberg wrote that they feel the company’s new product is a “significant departure from what Apple currently offers to the market” and that it is “unlikely to infringe on trade secrets” belonging to Apple.
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