More details about OpenAI's smart speaker surface

OpenAI's first device will be a screen-less smart speaker, according to a new report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. It will be designed to be used inside the home but will be easy to move around the house and will use a rechargeable battery.

Like any other smart speaker, it will be able to control smart home appliances, play media, answer questions, respond to messages, and of course this being an OpenAI product, it will have ChatGPT built-in. The chatbot will use a more advanced version of the new ChatGPT voice mode, with which you can have a true back-and-forth conversation, interrupting it and even being interrupted by it sometimes.

The device will get increasingly more personalized over time as it gains more context about you, and it will also be more proactive the more you use it. In fact, OpenAI apparently wants it to anticipate your needs and surface information before you even ask for it. The company reportedly believes that its main selling point will be its personality and its ability to "connect on a humanlike level with users".

Interestingly, the speaker allegedly incorporates "mechanical elements that can move on their own, creating a sense that it is alive and not just an object responding to commands". All of this is so that it can be viewed by people as "a physical manifestation of ChatGPT". The speaker has a camera and "other sensors that help it understand a user's surroundings and context".

It will be the first product to come out of OpenAI's acquisition of Jony Ive's io Products. Ive's design studio LoveFrom is also involved and "the endeavor involves many former Apple designers and engineers responsible for creating products such as the iPhone and Mac". The speaker will be unveiled later this year and will be released in 2027.

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