Jony Ive's first OpenAI device: an AI smart speaker - Jony Ive and Sam Altman — Jony Ive and Sam Altman

OpenAI will launch a portable, screen-free smart speaker as its first consumer hardware product, Bloomberg News has reported, days after Apple sued the AI start-up and two former employees of the iPhone maker for trade-secret theft.

Apple’s complaint, filed on Friday, accuses OpenAI of orchestrating a broad effort to systematically acquire and exploit Apple’s confidential information through its former employees, recruiting practices and supplier relationships to accelerate its push into the consumer hardware business.

OpenAI’s device could open a new line of revenue for the IPO-bound company. Last year, it paid US$6.5-billion to buy io, an AI devices start-up from Apple’s former design chief, Jony Ive, to develop devices tailored for the generative AI era.

The product, which resembles a speaker, is still in development and is designed to act as a humanlike AI companion within the home, the Bloomberg report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

It will be capable of controlling smart-home appliances, playing media, answering questions, responding to messages and drawing on the broader capabilities of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, according to the report.

The device includes a camera and sensors that will help it understand a user’s surroundings and context as well as advanced AI models beyond those available on conventional smart speakers, according to Bloomberg News.

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Ive’s studio, LoveFrom, is also helping build OpenAI’s device business and the effort involves numerous former Apple designers and engineers who worked on products such as the iPhone and Mac, the report said.