OpenAI is collaborating with the design studio LoveFrom, led by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, to develop a revolutionary artificial intelligence device. This new device aims to surpass existing products like Amazon Echo, becoming an assistant that actively learns, naturally integrates into users' daily lives, and helps like a real conversation partner, inspired by the movie "Her."

OpenAI

Hardware and Feature Concepts

This **"AI hardware"** is expected to include multiple devices, such as a screenless smart speaker, a digital recorder, and possibly a wearable device. One version is rumored to be similar in size to a smartphone but without a display, relying only on a camera, microphone, and speaker for interaction. It is expected to be always on, continuously collecting environmental data to build a "memory" for the AI assistant, supporting both fixed and mobile use. After io, Ive's company, was acquired by OpenAI for about $6.5 billion in May, more than 20 experts from Apple's product design and manufacturing fields have joined the project.

Key Technologies and Design Challenges

However, according to the Financial Times, the project faces several technological and ethical challenges, which may cause the originally planned product launch next year to be delayed.

1. Software Personality and User Experience: One of the core challenges is shaping the personality of the AI voice assistant. The goal is for it to feel like a **"friend like a computer"**, being useful yet unobtrusive, avoiding being overly flattering or like a "weird AI girlfriend," and being better than Siri.

2. Privacy and Ethical Risks: For a device that is always listening and recording through cameras and microphones, privacy issues are particularly problematic. If the device is designed to be too discreet (such as a pin or necklace), users might feel it is like a spy tool, violating privacy, which contrasts with the obvious design of Meta AI glasses that light up when recording.

3. Computational Infrastructure Bottlenecks: Scalability is another major challenge. Participants pointed out that OpenAI is already struggling to meet the computing demands of ChatGPT, and the current infrastructure cannot support a mass-market, always-on AI device. Unlike Amazon and Google, which have mature cloud platforms, OpenAI still needs to build its own cloud service platform.