Despite OpenAI‘s significant lead in the generative AI landscape, the ChatGPT maker also wants to dabble its foot in the hardware sector. It’s no secret that his plan has been in motion for a hot minute, ever since the company hired former Apple chief designer Jony Ive to lead operations in its hardware department.
Until now, there have been subtle hints about the device with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealing that the company is developing a small family of devices to reinvent human-computer interaction. However, the executive admitted that the company was struggling to get enough compute for ChatGPT, making development of the device harder.
A separate report detailed that the AI device had been delayed beyond 2026 due to privacy, compute, and personality issues. “Do not expect anything very soon,” added Altman.
However, new details about the device have emerged (via The Verge). While in an recent interview with Laurene Powell Jobs at Emerson Collective’s 2025 Demo Day, Jony Ive revealed that OpenAI is currently prototyping the long-awaited AI device, which is set to ship in “less than 2 years”.
Sam Altman has been vocal about today’s systems not being developed to thrive in an AI-driven world, pushing coveted benchmarks like AGI farther from the company’s grasp. Based on this premise, it’s pretty possible that OpenAI could be developing a product that meets these standards.
In the interim, we know that the device will be smaller than a smartphone, according to Sam Altman‘s comments, but simple, beautiful, and playful.
According to Ive:
“I love solutions that teeter on appearing almost naive in their simplicity, and I also love incredibly intelligent, sophisticated products that you want to touch, and you feel no intimidation, and you want to use almost carelessly, that you use them almost without thought, that they’re just tools.”
Sam Altman and Jony Ive seem confident that the device will resonate well with users, potentially making it the biggest tech disruption since the iPhone launched in 2007.
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