penAI is getting hands on.

CEO Sam Altman and former Apple designer Jony Ive have started prototyping the company’s first piece of consumer hardware, claiming in an interview at Emerson Collective’s 2025 Demo Day that the device could hit the market in less than two years. 

Though the project has been kept heavily under wraps, Altman called the device “simple and beautiful and playful.” The gadget has been reported to be roughly the size of a smartphone and not have a screen. Ive said in the interview that he admires solutions that appear “almost naive in their simplicity.”

The device adds to OpenAI’s broader pursuit to stake its claim in practically every industry, from browsers to enterprise tech to social media. But the company might face a higher barrier to entry in the consumer hardware market based on its predecessors:

• The highly-hyped Humane AI Pin, for example, made its debut in April of 2024 and quickly flopped, stopping operation in February. The nearly $700 device sought to detach users from their screens, survey their surroundings and answer queries. Along with simply not working well, the device was redundant to already-ubiquitous technology: Smartphones.
• Friend, an AI-powered necklace that similarly provides context and companionship to its wearers by watching a user’s environment, has been largely reviled by audiences, its billboards defaced all over major cities.

Though major device makers like Apple, Google and Samsung have seen some success with embedding AI in their suite of gadgets, there’s a reason for this. These firms already have devices in the hands of users, whether it be phones, smart watches or rings. Implementing AI into a connected environment is far more seamless for users than introducing a whole new device.

Though OpenAI definitely has name recognition among consumers, giving it a leg up over the likes of Friend and Humane, whether or not it can break the mold with its own screenless, AI-powered device is yet to be seen.