OpenAI and Jony Ive's first gadget is a $300, puck-sized AI speaker without a screen

Forget the sci-fi visions of all-knowing orbs and ambient computing panels. The first fruit of the much-hyped collaboration between OpenAI and legendary designer Jony Ive is, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, a battery-powered smart speaker with no display. It’s doughnut-shaped, roughly the size of a hockey puck, and will cost north of $300 when it supposedly launches in 2027.

Yes, you read that right. No screen. In an era where every device from your fridge to your car is getting a display, Ive and OpenAI are betting on a purely voice-driven object. The design reportedly includes moving parts that animate on their own to signal it’s listening or responding, plus a camera system and lights. Gurman’s sources describe it as being easy to carry around the house with one hand, drawing a direct line to Amazon’s long-dead Tap speaker. The core experience will be a more advanced version of ChatGPT’s voice mode, leaning hard into humanlike interactivity.

Calling this a “smart speaker” feels like both an understatement and a dodge. It’s not trying to be a Sonos competitor or a HomePod clone. The lack of a screen is a deliberate, almost contrarian choice—a bet that a conversational AI so good you don’t need to look at it is a real product category. The $300+ price tag and 2027 launch date suggest OpenAI isn’t rushing. They’re giving themselves time to build models that can hold a genuinely fluid, interruption-heavy conversation without the crutch of a visual interface.

This is the first in a planned family of devices, but it’s hard to ignore the ghost of the Humane Ai Pin and Rabbit R1 hovering over this news. Both were AI-first gadgets that promised a post-smartphone future, and both face-planted spectacularly for failing to be more useful than the phone already in your pocket. Ive’s involvement guarantees this will be beautiful, but the real test is whether OpenAI can make a $300 screenless puck that doesn’t just do what your iPhone’s ChatGPT app already does—only with less.