OpenAI is preparing to enter your living room with a smart speaker that could cost as much as a mid-range smartphone, and it’s betting that price point is justified by a device designed to replace the phone altogether. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that the company has internally discussed charging between $300 and $400 for the yet-to-be-announced gadget, which is being crafted in collaboration with LoveFrom, the design firm of legendary former Apple designer Jony Ive.
This isn’t just another Alexa or Google Nest clone that reads you the weather. The battery-powered device, described by anonymous sources as a doughnut-shaped puck roughly the size of a hockey puck, is built from “high-quality metal” and other premium materials. It’s engineered to feel “more alive,” with parts that move independently while it speaks and lights that signal when it’s listening. Under the hood, it will apparently run a more advanced version of the voice mode currently found in ChatGPT’s mobile app, pushing for what Bloomberg calls “humanlike interactivity.”
The ambition here is audacious. While Apple and Amazon have spent years trying to make the smart speaker a hub for simple commands, OpenAI seems to be betting that giving the device a physical, almost animatronic presence can make AI feel less like a tool and more like a companion. That’s a direct shot at the very nature of how we interact with technology, moving from a screen-tapping relationship to a purely conversational one. It also explains the phone-killer framing: if you can do everything by talking to a puck on your desk, why pull out your iPhone?
Of course, the irony is thick. Apple is currently suing OpenAI, alleging the AI firm poached trade secrets for its hardware ambitions. Bloomberg’s sources say an internal OpenAI probe following the lawsuit concluded the speaker doesn’t use Apple’s intellectual property. Still, the shadow of litigation hangs over a device designed by the man who defined the iPhone’s aesthetic. Whether consumers will pay $400 to talk to a moving doughnut remains an open question, but the bet signals that OpenAI believes the next computing platform isn’t a better screen—it’s no screen at all.
