Overview
- Bloomberg’s Thursday report described the device as a battery‑powered, displayless speaker shaped like a doughnut and roughly the size of a hockey puck with a planned retail price around $300 to $400.
- The product is said to include moving mechanical elements and lights to signal activity, plus microphones, speaker grills, cameras and environmental sensors to feed visual and audio context into advanced conversational models.
- OpenAI is developing the device after acquiring io and working with Jony Ive’s LoveFrom studio, positioning it as an “AI‑first” home companion and the first in a planned family of consumer products.
- Apple has sued OpenAI for alleged theft of trade secrets and has asked for injunctive relief, and OpenAI has denied misuse, filed a motion to dismiss and says an internal review found no use of Apple’s intellectual property.
- OpenAI aims to unveil hardware later in 2026 and reach consumers in 2027 but the company’s timeline and how the speaker will handle user privacy and regulatory scrutiny depend on the ongoing legal case and related reviews.