On the heels of the much-hyped iPhone 17 series, OpenAI is in the rumours once again, and this time, it seems dead set on replacing the iPhone as a concept. The Sam Altman-led AI firm will launch its first ChatGPT-powered device by 2027 ,and to make it happen, the company is utilising ex-Apple staff as well as the company’s supply chain.
According to a report from The Information, this new venture sees the AI company leveraging its partnership with former Apple design chief Jony Ive, whose hardware-based AI startup, io, was acquired by OpenAI earlier this year. The collaboration is now expanding, with OpenAI recruiting top hardware talent from Apple. The company is also tapping into its extensive supply chain network in China.
OpenAI hiring more Apple staff for its AI gadget
In fact, such is the effect of the recruitment drive at Apple that the company has apparently canceled an annual offsite meeting for its US and China supply chain teams. It is said that OpenAI’s new chief hardware officer, Tang Tan, who was a former Apple product design head, is luring potential hires with promises of “less bureaucracy and more collaboration.”
To bring its hardware business ambitions to fruition, OpenAI has reportedly secured a contract with Luxshare, a key assembler for Apple’s iPhones and AirPods. The company is also said to be in talks with another Apple assembler, Goertek, for the supply of components like speaker modules.
These partnerships with major players in Apple’s supply chain could give OpenAI the large-scale manufacturing capabilities it needs to enter the consumer hardware market. With design legend Jony Ive at the helm, the industry expects these products to be a game-changer, – something which the original iPhone did back in 2007.
Currently, the target release window for these devices is set for late 2026 to early 2027.
OpenAI gadget to rely on ChatGPT
The report suggests OpenAI is working on a variety of hardware concepts, including smart glasses, a digital voice recorder, a wearable pin, and a smart speaker-like device without a display. However, it is only one of these products that is currently in the prototype stage.
This pocket-sized device is said to have context awareness, designed to work seamlessly with OpenAI’s AI models – something similar to the Humane AI pin, a product that failed drastically. The device is said to have ChatGPT at its core, promising a smarter human-machine interface than the existing smartphone and laptop combo.