OpenAI's smart speaker sounds like a cross between a HomePod and a Furby

OpenAI is reportedly making a portable, screenless smart speaker intended to act as a household AI companion. It sounds like a cross between an Apple HomePod, a Furby, and spyware.

Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that OpenAI is developing a hardware device powered by its generative AI chatbot ChatGPT. Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reports that the device will perform various functions already covered by other smart speakers, including controlling smart appliances, playing media, responding to messages, and answering questions. 

However, rather than attempting to offer pure utility, OpenAI's smart speaker will apparently try to endear itself to users with a "personality" as well. Specifically, the device will have moving mechanical parts which it can use to express itself, Bloomberg reporting that it will be designed to feel "humanlike" and "a physical manifestation of OpenAI's ChatGPT."

The device will reportedly actively gather data about users as well, using such means as accessing their emails ostensibly to offer more personalised service. Equipped with cameras and sensors and able to access users' personal information, OpenAI's speaker will reportedly learn their owners' habits and offer assistance without prompting.

We've known that OpenAI has had an eye on moving into physical devices for a while now, with the company announcing last May that it had acquired iPhone designer Jony Ive' startup io. Details leaked to The Wall Street Journal at the time suggested that OpenAI's hardware debut would be a screenless device that could essentially surveil a user and their environment.

"The product will be capable of being fully aware of a user's surroundings and life, will be unobtrusive, able to rest in one's pocket or on one's desk," according to an OpenAI staff meeting recording reported by the Journal. 

Bloomberg's sources now appear to back up this report that OpenAI's devices are being designed with constant surveillance in mind. According to the Journal's report, OpenAI has grand plans to ship 100 million of these devices, and dreams of it becoming "a third core device a person would put on a desk after a MacBook Pro and an iPhone."

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.