OpenAI Debuts Audio AI Models Ahead of New Personal Devices

OpenAI is reportedly improving its audio artificial intelligence (AI) models because it expects users of future personal AI devices to communicate with them through voice commands rather than via a screen.

Currently, the company’s large language model (LLM) that powers the audio version of ChatGPT is less accurate and slower to respond than those powering the text-based versions, The Information reported Thursday (Jan. 1), citing unnamed sources.

OpenAI plans to release the new audio model during the first quarter and expects to release its first personal AI device in about a year, according to the report.

OpenAI declined The Information’s request to comment on the report.

According to the report, OpenAI plans to release several personal AI devices, including glasses and a smart speaker, over time.

Google, Amazon, Meta and Apple are also developing personal AI devices that will be optimized for artificial intelligence, the report said.

Many AI researchers, including those working on OpenAI’s first device, expect users to interact with these devices through speech because that is a more natural method than using a screen, per the report.

When OpenAI announced its acquisition of io, an AI device startup co-founded by former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive, in May 2025, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman noted that to use ChatGPT today, users need to turn on a computer, open a web browser, go to the ChatGPT website, type in a query and wait for an answer.

“I think we have the opportunity here to kind of completely reimagine what it means to use a computer,” Altman said.

OpenAI Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap told The Wall Street Journal in May 2025 that the company sees an opportunity for AI access to be offered through an “ambient computer layer” rather than via web browsers and mobile apps.

The company aims to eliminate the need to look at a screen to access AI and wants to build AI that is “truly personal,” Lightcap said.

PYMNTS reported Tuesday (Dec. 30) that ahead of next week’s CES 2026, several consumer electronics manufacturers are previewing hardware products built on artificial intelligence technologies. The devices include wearables, mixed-reality systems, home security, appliances and robotics.