OpenAI’s expensive smart speaker will use moving parts to seem “more alive”

OpenAI’s upcoming smart speaker will probably cost over $300, “people familiar with the matter” have told Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

The generative AI company has “discussed” charging up to $400, Bloomberg, which has been reporting on the yet-to-be-announced smart speaker since July, said today. The publication said that OpenAI is viewing the smart speaker as a smartphone replacement.

OpenAI has declined to comment on its product roadmap.

Per Bloomberg, the speaker will follow in the steps of other smart speakers lately in pushing an AI-first focus aimed at helping people complete tasks, compared to simpler smart speaker tasks, like checking the weather. The battery-powered gadget will reportedly “work similarly” to the ChatGPT voice mode on mobile apps “but with more advanced models for humanlike interactivity,” Bloomberg said.

The device will be able to control smart home devices too, the publication previously reported.

OpenAI’s speaker will “be shaped like a doughnut that’s roughly the size of a hockey puck,” Bloomberg said today, citing its anonymous sources.

Additionally, the device will reportedly have parts that will move independently when the speaker is responding to user prompts. Like other speakers, it will also reportedly have lights to indicate when the device is listening. The moving parts and lights aim to make the device seem “more alive than today’s stationary speaker products,” the report said.

Bloomberg pointed to “high-quality metal” and other premium materials for the speaker, which OpenAI reportedly designed with LoveFrom, a studio owned by famous former Apple designer Jony Ive.

Apple is currently suing OpenAI, accusing the AI company of stealing trade secrets for its hardware development. Bloomberg’s sources said that OpenAI launched an internal probe on the speaker following Apple’s lawsuit and determined that the speaker doesn’t use Apple IP.