OpenAI Plans Portable Smart Speaker With Personality

OpenAI’s first device will be a portable smart speaker that serves as an artificial intelligence companion, Bloomberg reported Tuesday (July 14), citing unnamed sources.

The device, which is still under development and could be changed, will be able to tap into ChatGPT’s capabilities, will become more personalized to the user over time, and will have a personality, according to the report.

It will also be able to control smart-home appliances and play media, the report said.

The device will be designed to be used in the home but will be portable enough to be easily moved from room to room. It will have no screen, but it will have a camera and other sensors so it can understand its surroundings, per the report.

OpenAI aims to reveal the device this year and launch it in 2027, the report said.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

When OpenAI acquired AI device startup io for a reported $6.5 billion in May 2025, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and io Co-Founder Jony Ive, the former chief design officer at Apple, said that a new generation of devices was needed for the AI era.

In a video announcing the acquisition, Altman said he believes there’s a better way to access AI than turning on a computer, opening a web browser, going to ChatGPT’s website, typing in a query and waiting for an answer.

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

In February, it was reported the OpenAI has more than 200 people working to develop AI-powered devices, including a smart speaker, smart glasses and a smart lamp. That report said the company planned to release the smart speaker first, no earlier than February 2027.

It was reported Friday (July 10) that Apple sued OpenAI and two of its employees, alleging that they stole trade secrets from Apple to support OpenAI’s development of devices.

According to Tuesday’s Bloomberg report, OpenAI believes its smart speaker is different to anything Apple currently offers and is unlikely to violate trade secrets.