Jony Ive and Sam Altman say they finally have an AI hardware prototype
TL;DR
Sam Altman and Jony Ive are prototyping a screen-free AI device, roughly smartphone-sized, aiming for a launch in under two years. They describe it as simple, beautiful, and playful, with a design that feels intuitive and non-intimidating.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and former Apple designer Jony Ive have been keeping the finer details of the first mysterious OpenAI hardware under wraps, but it sounds like they’ve settled on a design. In an interview with Laurene Powell Jobs at Emerson Collective’s 2025 Demo Day, they said they are currently prototyping the device, and when asked about a timeframe, Ive said it could arrive in “less than” two years.
Little has been revealed so far about the OpenAI device in development, but it’s rumored to be screen-free and “roughly the size of a smartphone.”
Altman described the design as “simple and beautiful and playful,” adding that, “There was an earlier prototype that we were quite excited about, but I did not have any feeling of, ‘I want to pick up that thing and take a bite out of it,’ and then finally we got there all of a sudden.”
Ive similarly emphasized simplicity and whimsy, saying, “I love solutions that teeter on appearing almost naive in their simplicity, and I also love incredibly intelligent, sophisticated products that you want to touch, and you feel no intimidation, and you want to use almost carelessly, that you use them almost without thought, that they’re just tools.”
Altman went on to comment, “I hope that when people see it, they say, ‘That’s it!’,” to which Ive responded, “Yeah, they will.”