{"id":802607,"date":"2026-07-15T02:35:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T02:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/802607\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T02:35:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T02:35:11","slug":"the-openai-mystery-device-will-reportedly-be-basically-just-a-smart-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/802607\/","title":{"rendered":"The OpenAI Mystery Device Will Reportedly Be Basically Just a Smart Speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to an anonymously sourced report from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, the much hyped<\/a> and frequently mocked<\/a> physical doohickey coming soon from OpenAI will be\u2026 a smart speaker that moves<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In April, another major source of Apple rumors, Ming-Chi Kuo, analyst at TF International Securities described something in a different category when he said OpenAI was releasing an \u201cAI agent phone.<\/a>\u201d One (or both) of these rumors could be wrong, or this could be a different device, or\u2014and in my view this is equally likely\u2014the thing OpenAI is making could split the difference between being a phone and being a smart speaker.<\/p>\n

After all, what\u2019s in the Bloomberg article doesn\u2019t sound entirely stale and uncreative. It will apparently be portable, battery-powered, and small enough to be easy to move from one room to another\u2014like a baby monitor or 90s cordless phone perhaps. But it will also be capable of controlling the smart appliances in your house, screenless, and chatbot-powered, like a smart speaker.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s this curveball: it will reportedly have mechanical components that allow it to move in some way or another, giving the impression that it is \u201calive.\u201d<\/p>\n

If that part about moving sounds harebrained to you, what if I said it sounds oddly like something Apple has been working on for the past few years?<\/p>\n

There are reportedly three prototype home devices<\/a> that have been floating around Cupertino for a while: two Siri-powered smart speakers, meant to introduce a new and more sophisticated Apple HomePod ecosystem, along with a third that is also a little robot that moves around your tabletop. <\/p>\n

Last week, Apple sued OpenAI for misappropriating its trade secrets<\/a>, alleging a scheme involving the poaching of talent from Apple, including mechanical engineer Tang Tan<\/a>. OpenAI says in response<\/a>, \u201cWe have no interest in other companies\u2019 trade secrets,\u201d according to\u00a0 spokesperson Drew Pusateri, who adds, \u201cWe remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s worth keeping in mind that other rumors about the Apple home robot device have made it seem like more of an iPad-like device with robotic swiveling action<\/a>, and not at all like a smart speaker.<\/p>\n

The smart speaker device is apparently the culmination of OpenAI\u2019s relationship with former Apple design legend Jony Ive, and the $6.4 billion acquisition <\/a>of Ive\u2019s hardware design company io.<\/p>\n

As far as what might make the OpenAI device at least ostensibly special and unique, Bloomberg\u2019s source claims that it\u2019s supposed to be a companion that gets \u201cincreasingly personalized and proactive as it gains a deeper understanding of its owner over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

It needs to live up to every part of that claim and more, because it would not be an exaggeration to say it is the most hyperbolically hyped-up device since the Segway scooter in 2001<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have sounded downright creepily obsessed with this thing since the slickly produced video announcement of their friendship<\/a> (What, you don\u2019t do this when you make a friend?) released in March of last year.<\/p>\n

In November, Altman recounted Ive saying<\/a> \u201c\u2018We\u2019ll know we\u2019ll have the design right when you want to lick it or take a bite out of it.\u2019\u201d\u00a0Altman then claimed<\/a> that \u201cThere was an earlier prototype that we were like quite excited about, but I did not have any feeling of like \u2018I want to pick up that thing and take a bite out of it.\u201d He then added, \u201cBut finally we got there all of a sudden.\u201d<\/p>\n

Altman has also said<\/a> the device will be \u201cthe coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen.\u201d\u00a0And Bloomberg says it will be a smart speaker, so I guess we\u2019ll soon see who\u2019s right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to an anonymously sourced report from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, the much hyped and frequently mocked physical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1572,49,48,64847,278,2747,73669,61],"class_list":["post-802607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-apple","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-jony-ive","tag-openai","tag-sam-altman","tag-smart-speakers","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}