According to people familiar with the matter, OpenAI's first device will be a mobile smart speaker built as an AI companion, serving as a humanlike AI assistant that controls smart-home appliances, plays media, answers questions, responds to messages, and taps into ChatGPT's capabilities. This move represents a critical next step for OpenAI, poised for an initial public offering in the coming months, and vaults the company into deeper competition with tech giants.

The device will incorporate mechanical elements that can move on their own, creating a sense of life and connection with users. It will also draw on personal information such as emails to better understand its owner. OpenAI believes the product's defining feature will be its personality and ability to connect on a humanlike level with users.

The speaker's technology is meant to become increasingly personalized and proactive as it gains a deeper understanding of its owner over time, anticipating needs, surfacing information proactively, and serving as an expert on its user. OpenAI envisions the device as a computer built for AI to help make busy people more productive, including a camera and other sensors that help understand a user's surroundings and context.

The move has already met resistance, with Apple suing OpenAI over alleged trade secrets theft. However, OpenAI believes the device veers significantly from anything Apple has on the market today and is unlikely to violate trade secrets belonging to the iPhone maker.

OpenAI's hardware division is working on roughly five different products, starting with the speaker, which aims to unveil the device this year before releasing it in 2027. The company believes its first product will distinguish itself through a novel approach to the market and bringing a personalized experience to users.

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