OpenAI, a leader in Artificial Intelligence (AI) innovation, is laying the groundwork for the mass production of AI “companion” devices. These devices, designed to weave AI technology into the fabric of daily life, could become as ubiquitous as laptops and smartphones.
In a discussion with The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, along with designer Jony Ive, revealed their collaborative effort to create these mysterious devices for wide-scale distribution. Their ambitious plan entails shipping 100 million units at the outset.
After OpenAI acquired Ive’s startup, io, in a $6.5 billion deal, Ive became part of the OpenAI team. The specifics of these companion devices remain under wraps, with Ive only hinting at a “new design movement” akin to Apple’s seamless hardware-software interfaces.
OpenAI has already secured billions in investment, bolstered by the remarkable success of its ChatGPT large language model (LLM). As of May, ChatGPT had nearly 800 million weekly active users, a pattern that contributed to OpenAI’s astronomical valuation of $300 billion by March 2025, a significant leap from $157 billion in October 2024.
Beyond these AI “companion” devices, OpenAI intends to infiltrate the social media sphere, aiming to rival platforms like Elon Musk’s X and Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, as reported by The Verge. The planned platform would leverage ChatGPT’s image generation abilities alongside a social media feed similar to X’s. It is yet to be seen if this social media platform will stand alone or be integrated into ChatGPT.
The convergence of AI and social media is seeping into the blockchain realm too, with several startups harnessing these technologies to create AI agents, LLM tools, and decentralized social media networks. For instance, Validation Cloud deployed an LLM on the Hedera network, making blockchain data queries more accessible for decentralized finance users.
