It had been a question of when, rather than if, OpenAI launches physical devices since acquiring former Apple design guru Jony Ive’s start-up Io last year.
Speaking at Axios House on the fringes of Davos yesterday, OpenAI chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane gave the strongest indication yet that 2026 will be the year we see the long-mooted consumer hardware from the ChatGPT creator. He said OpenAI was on track to unveil its first such device in the second half of this year.
Speculation has been rife in recent months, with many pointing to an AI pen of sorts being the likely first release in a suite of consumer devices, but last week a leak on X from closely followed electronics blogger Weibo suggested the first device might be a wearable – a variation on earbuds that sit behind the ear and are powered by AI. He even cited a code name for the buds – Sweetpea.
It certainly fits with longstanding reports that OpenAI’s Sam Altman has headphones on his radar when acquiring Io back in May 2025, the AI start-up founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive and other former Apple engineers Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey and Tang Tan. At Apple, Ive famously led the design of iconic products like the iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.
Ive and his design firm LoveFrom began quietly collaborating with OpenAI a few years ago, a blogpost on the company’s website read. Ive and his former colleagues subsequently set up Io – a hardware company – with the aim of building a new family of devices and projects for OpenAI.
Altman has previously shown interest in AI consumer devices. He invested in Humane, a start-up that failed to catch on with its less than functional AI pin.
While Ives did not join OpenAI, he and his LoveFrom team were said to be working “intimately” with the OpenAI’s research, engineering and product teams. Dozens of Io engineers, software developers and experts, including other Io co-founders, did join OpenAI as part of the acquisition.
Reports at the time of the acquisition said Altman and LoveFrom previously considered headphones and other devices with cameras, and products would appear in 2026. Could Sweetpea be the sweet spot for OpenAI’s first hardware endeavour this year?
Sam Altman in 2022. Image: Village Global/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
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