OpenAI’s Device All About the 'O'?

I should have known. At this point, I've spent a handful of posts trying to figure out what OpenAI's first true device may look like. While I think I nailed the general idea early on – a voice-first, non-wearable smart speaker without a screen – the actual design for such a device has eluded me. Good thing Mark Gurman has started getting OpenAI leaks to go along with the Apple ones:¹

A highly anticipated new device from OpenAI will have a unique look, complete with moving parts that help give it personality, and likely cost more than $300, according to people familiar with the matter.

The product — essentially a smart speaker without a display — will be shaped like a doughnut that’s roughly the size of a hockey puck, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the work is confidential. The idea is to make the device easy to carry around the home with one hand.

A doughnut. You know what else is shaped like a doughnut? An 'O'.

I'm probably reading too much into this, in fact I'm sure I am, but what the hell, it's a Friday and I'm getting ready to leave on holiday. What if, as silly as it may seem, the design of OpenAI's device is derived from OpenAI's name itself?

This isn't totally out of left field, back in 2024 I wrote about the notion that OpenAI was said to be undergoing a big rebrand all centered around the 'O' in their name. Obviously their logo is already a bit O-like, but there was some chatter that they could go full circle, quite literally. Perhaps some internal backlash killed it, or perhaps it was never a serious design sprint. Either way, the letter 'O' was clearly top of mind for them.

A few months before that report, the company introduced the GPT-4o model to much fanfare. There, the 'o' stood for 'omni' – as in that was their first model that fully ventured outside of text. Notably, including voice capabilities. Voice, you say...

A few months later, we got 'o1' the first reasoning model. I still wish OpenAI would have gone with the codename for that model – 'Strawberry' – but again, they were clearly all about the 'o'. And now perhaps they are once again, only with hardware.

The day after I wrote about the potential new 'O' logo, news broke that Jony Ive's LoveFrom design studio was working with OpenAI on some sort of newfangled device for the AI age. About eight months later, 'io' – there's that pesky 'o' again – the team specifically working on that project which spun out from LoveFrom, merged with OpenAI. Adding yet another 'o' to the mix.

Anyway, a doughnut-shaped device the size of a hockey puck sounds a bit strange unless you consider that it's supposed to be portable. Not necessarily to take outside (though maybe there will be some accessories for that?) but around the house. Longtime Apple watchers will know that the company has long been obsessed with handles. While it famously started with the Macintosh and continued with the Apple IIc, Ive seemed to double down on them with the iMac and iBook. The PowerMac G4 Cube had a pop-up handle. And the Mac Pro got them too.

So when I hear "doughnut shaped device" my mind immediately thinks that it's also a way to handle the device. Because that shape is a natural handle.

My mind was already drifting towards a handle when the reports last month had a few details about the smart speaker elements of the device. But I didn't consider that the entire thing could be a handle of sorts. That could make sense! And would certainly differentiate it from the other "smart speakers" out there.²

Of course, as I wrote last month, I'm also of the mindset that this device won't be framed as a smart speaker at all, but rather as a newfangled computer for the AI age. Or perhaps a companion – as in, a robot. John Gruber wrote about the same notion today at Daring Fireball on this latest report:

This doesn’t sound like a “smart speaker” with lights, moving parts, cameras, and other sensors. It sounds like a robot companion, and a robot companion obviously needs a speaker, amongst its other essential features. It’s like calling R2-D2 “a smart speaker” — it wouldn’t be wrong but it’s missing the point. (You could technically call the iPhone “a smart speaker”.) What the io device seems to be missing is autonomous movement. So you need to carry it around like a mogwai, rather than it following you around or going places on its own. I couldn’t give two shits about an OpenAI “smart speaker” if the point is just to play music and podcasts, but a handheld cross between R2-D2 and C-3PO, that could be fucking cool.

It’s a pet, it sounds like. A revolutionary pet, if they pull it off. And people love their pets.

People hear "robot' and immediately think of a humanoid robot – a sort of C-3PO. But the first actual robots we're going to get in our homes, at least at any scale, aren't going to be Tesla's Optimus, they're going to be super simple and perhaps even stationary – well, without an assist from you – robots. Yes, yes, we've long had Roombas,³ but I mean robots you can actually talk to and interact with in a meaningful way. Yes, the first batch of smart speakers are now getting there thanks to their LLM upgrades, but they don't evoke any real emotional response yet in usage. It sure sounds like OpenAI's device will be aiming for that:

OpenAI expects users to rely on the smart speaker throughout the day. It will work similarly to the company’s ChatGPT voice mode on smartphone apps, but with more advanced models for humanlike interactivity. The device is designed to learn more about a user over time, letting it tailor conversations and act more like a real person.

The circle-shaped device will include parts that move on their own, according to the people. That will help show when it’s responding and interacting with the user. The goal is to make the object feel more alive than today’s stationary speaker products.

The moving parts element was also included in the reports last month about the device. And that's why, when Apple's OpenAI lawsuit hit, I immediately thought that it might not actually be about current devices but future ones. Because by far the most compelling future device I've seen out of Apple's research department was this sort of weird, anthropomorphized lamp. Yes, like the Pixar lamp, Luxo Jr.

That type of device – which, to be clear, is still just a prototype in a lab somewhere within Apple – reminds me much more of what OpenAI may be going for here versus, say, a HomePod. Or even the forthcoming 'HomePad' thing.

So yeah, a doughnut/handle/'O' shape makes some sense. I don't know where you put the camera on such a device – perhaps it's meant to "stand"? – or where the moving pieces come into play? I keep envisioning little arms/nubs that wiggle to convey something, but who knows. But I feel like this device may be more interesting than it sounds on paper. Because I feel like it may be the first real robot in our homes.

An actual, physical chatbot, as it were. Bringing the 'O' to home.

One more thing: $300 to $400? That sounds pretty premium. Also very Jony Ive.

¹ These leaks seem especially interesting when you consider that both note that OpenAI isn't worried about crossing any of Apple's patents with this device. It sure feels like OpenAI would very much like that notion out there. But again, what about the unreleased products Apple is working on? Such projects sure seem to be a focal point of the messages shared (on both sides) for the lawsuit... ↩

² Lawsuit aside, presumably OpenAI wants nothing to do with being compared to Alexa/HomePod/etc with this device. While those sold well – at least Amazon's Echo devices – they also seem comically outdated and rudimentary in our current AI world. ↩

³ Sorry Lina Khan! ↩