Stuffing an AI chatbot into a consumer electronics device and turning out with a product people actually want has proven extremely difficult.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve come across creepy and widely-hated pendants<\/a> designed to listen to everything you say, as well as flawed AI \u201cpins<\/a>\u201d that turned out to be a flaming dumpster fire<\/a>, leading to frustration and disbelief<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now Sam Altman\u2019s OpenAI, which recruited former Apple design lead Jony Ive to lead its own hardware effort, is gearing up to release its would-be showstopper \u2014 and alas, it doesn\u2019t sound like it\u2019s managed to iterate beyond \u201cclunky gadget that pretty much does stuff your phone already does.\u201d<\/p>\n As The Information reports<\/a>, a team of over 200 employees has been working on a smart speaker that features a built-in camera, which will recognize faces and identify objects thanks to a dose of AI. It will reportedly retail for anywhere from $200 and $300 and ship no earlier than the beginning of next year.<\/p>\n That\u2019s right: the best idea that the big brains at OpenAI could cook up is yet another \u201chousehold gadget that talks to you\u201d \u2014 without a single clear differentiating feature from the phone you already have in your pocket, which can already run every major chatbot.<\/p>\n The company is also reportedly working on a \u201csmart lamp\u201d \u2014\u00a0but whether OpenAI is actually looking to bring it to market, let alone if such a product could conjure any enthusiasm among consumers, remains unclear.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a critical juncture for OpenAI as it continues to explore potential revenue streams to stop hemorrhaging billions of dollars a quarter. The company is already turning to ads<\/a> to bring in some much-needed revenue, despite Altman having previously characterized them as a \u201clast resort.\u201d<\/p>\n Even just a smart speaker may be difficult to bring<\/a> to the market. In October, the Financial Times reported<\/a> that OpenAI\u2019s partnership with Ive was encountering \u201ctechnical issues,\u201d delaying the first product\u2019s release date from last year to this year. Considering the latest news, problems may continue to haunt the company as the release date continues to slip.<\/p>\n Other attempts at AI hardware have struggled to gain much traction, even with significant resources. Amazon\u2019s AI-powered Alexa, which was launched in a barely half-working state last year<\/a>, hasn\u2019t really moved the needle.<\/p>\n Besides technical hiccups, OpenAI will have to tread carefully when it comes to user privacy. Marketing a device designed to ingest and analyze vast amounts of potentially intimate data isn\u2019t exactly straightforward.<\/p>\n Consumers are already growing wary of AI, fearing that it\u2019s ushering in a new era of surveillance. Case in point, Amazon\u2019s home security subsidiary Ring completely missed the mark<\/a> with its Super Bowl ad earlier this month, which showed off a new function that lets its security camera feeds scan an entire neighborhood.<\/p>\n Netizens criticized the ad as being \u201cOrwellian,\u201d leading some customers to reportedly disconnect and destroy<\/a> their Ring cameras.<\/p>\n How users will react to an OpenAI smart speaker remains to be seen. But considering the many missed attempts we\u2019ve come across so far, the company has a lot to prove.<\/p>\n