OpenAI and Jony Ive’s futuristic AI gadget sounds exciting, but building it is proving harder than expected

OpenAI

OpenAI and legendary Apple designer Jony Ive are trying to build the future of personal technology—but it’s proving trickier than they thought.

According to a new report from the Financial Times, the duo is working on a bold new device: a small, screen-less gadget powered entirely by artificial intelligence. The vision sounds straight out of science fiction—something you can hold in your palm, that uses audio and visual cues from the real world to respond to you without the need for typing, tapping, or swiping.

Back in May, OpenAI acquired Ive’s device startup, io, in a blockbuster $6.5 billion deal. At the time, CEO Sam Altman promised this collaboration would usher in a “new generation of AI-powered computers.” Bloomberg even reported that the first product could arrive as early as 2026. But now, it seems the timeline may slip.

Why? Because the team hasn’t quite cracked the details of how this device should behave. One of the biggest challenges is its “personality.” The gadget is designed to be “always on,” meaning it listens to the world around it and can jump in without waiting for a direct prompt. But there’s a fine line between helpful and annoying. The team is still struggling with how to make sure the device doesn’t butt in unnecessarily—or worse, keep talking long after it’s supposed to stop.

Then there are thornier issues like privacy and the heavy computing infrastructure required to make such a futuristic idea actually work. How much data should the device collect? Where should it process it—locally or in the cloud? And how can it do all this without draining its battery or creeping out its users? These are questions still very much up in the air.

The project is ambitious, no doubt, but it also highlights the difficulties of reimagining personal tech in a world already dominated by smartphones and smart speakers. If OpenAI and Ive succeed, the result could be a category-defining gadget unlike anything we’ve seen. But for now, their AI dream machine remains more of a work-in-progress than a polished product.

Would you like me to also add a punchy closing line—something speculative, like how this could either be “the iPhone of AI” or just another overhyped gadget?