OpenAI is building a ChatGPT-powered smart speaker with a built-in camera, a device that bears a striking resemblance to products already sitting on millions of kitchen counters. The gadget, which could be priced between $200 and $300, has already run into a trademark lawsuit that forced the company to abandon its original branding and pushed the expected ship date past early 2027. What was supposed to be a splashy entrance into consumer hardware has instead become a case study in how legal friction can reshape a product before it ever reaches shelves.
A Smart Speaker That Sounds Like Every Other One
OpenAI’s planned device takes the form of a screenless speaker equipped with a camera, according to reporting from The Information. The feature set includes recognizing objects, following conversations, and enabling facial-recognition-based purchasing that observers have compared to the convenience of phone-based biometric logins. At an estimated $200 to $300, the speaker would land in roughly the same price range as Amazon’s Echo Show and Google’s Nest Hub Max, two devices that have defined the smart-speaker category for years. Strip away the ChatGPT branding and you are left with a camera-equipped home assistant that largely matches the contours of a product category consumers already know well.
That familiarity may be a deliberate strategic choice rather than a failure of imagination. OpenAI has a sizable internal hardware development team, and the company has reportedly explored other form factors, including glasses and a lamp-style prototype that would embed conversational AI into more novel objects. Opting for a traditional smart-speaker shape suggests a bet that mainstream adoption comes faster when shoppers recognize the object on the shelf and understand its basic purpose. The risk is that a product this familiar needs a dramatically better AI experience to justify its existence alongside entrenched competitors that already sit at the center of many living rooms and kitchens.
A Trademark Fight Derails the “io” Brand
Before the speaker could reach consumers, its branding collided with an existing trademark. IYO, Inc., a company that makes AI-enabled earbuds, filed suit against OpenAI and others in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging willful infringement and unfair competition tied to OpenAI’s use of the “io” name. The case, docketed as 3:25-cv-04861-TLT, centers on whether OpenAI’s branding for its hardware line is confusingly similar to IYO’s registered mark and whether that similarity could mislead consumers about the source of AI devices and accessories. For a company that has been trying to establish itself as a hardware brand, the dispute goes beyond logos and taglines to the heart of how it presents itself in stores and online.
Public access to the court’s filings, including complaints, motions, and declarations, is available through the Northern District of California’s electronic records and via the nationwide federal case database, which shows that the litigation has remained active into early 2026. The continuing stream of documents underscores how much time and executive attention a naming conflict can consume when a flagship product is at stake. Instead of focusing solely on manufacturing, distribution, and software polish, OpenAI’s hardware team has had to coordinate with lawyers, respond to discovery, and prepare sworn statements about its branding plans and development timeline.
Court Orders and a Forced Rebrand
The lawsuit moved quickly from allegations to concrete restrictions. A federal judge granted a temporary restraining order requiring OpenAI to stop using the disputed “io” mark and similar branding across its hardware efforts, according to a press statement describing the order. Temporary restraining orders are an extraordinary remedy, typically issued only when a court believes the plaintiff has shown a likelihood of success and a risk of irreparable harm if the challenged conduct continues. In practical terms, the ruling meant OpenAI had to halt use of a name it had already woven into early marketing, industrial design documents, and partnership pitches.
The effects were immediate and highly visible. References to the “io” branding and to OpenAI’s collaboration with designer Jony Ive were scrubbed from official materials, including website copy that had previously highlighted the hardware project as a bold new chapter for the company. Court records in the Northern District of California docket reflect how the restraining order reshaped the dispute, forcing the parties to argue not only over past conduct but also over how OpenAI could move forward without violating the court’s instructions. For a young hardware brand, losing a carefully chosen name at this stage is more than a cosmetic setback; it can require reworking packaging, user interfaces, and even the way retail partners describe the product.
Ship Date Slips Past Early 2027
The legal entanglement also exposed a concrete timeline that OpenAI had not previously disclosed. According to reporting from Business Insider, OpenAI executive Peter Welinder stated in a court filing that the company would not ship the device before the end of February 2027. That admission, made in the context of litigation rather than a polished product announcement, gave the public its clearest picture yet of when the hardware might actually arrive. Separately, another outlet also reported a February 2027 target window for the device, though the accounts differ slightly on whether that date is a firm earliest boundary or an aspirational goal, underscoring how fluid hardware schedules can be when they are revealed under legal pressure rather than through a traditional launch roadmap.
The delay matters because the AI hardware market is moving fast and is already littered with cautionary tales. Humane’s Ai Pin, for example, launched with intense hype but quickly ran into poor reviews and sluggish sales, showing that novelty and buzz are no substitute for clear utility and reliability. OpenAI now faces a double challenge: it must find a new brand identity for its speaker while also delivering an AI experience compelling enough to justify entering a crowded field more than a year from now. Every month of slippage gives Amazon, Google, and Apple more time to integrate advanced language models into devices that already enjoy massive distribution, established accessory ecosystems, and deep reservoirs of consumer trust.
Privacy, Cameras, and Consumer Trust
The inclusion of a camera and facial-recognition purchasing raises questions that go well beyond industrial design. A device that can identify who is standing in front of it and authorize transactions based on their face introduces a layer of biometric data collection that most current smart speakers do not attempt. Existing displays such as Amazon’s Echo Show may use cameras for video calls and basic presence detection, but they have generally stopped short of tying facial recognition directly to household payments in the way OpenAI’s device reportedly would. If the system works as described, it could make reordering groceries or digital goods as simple as looking at the speaker and speaking a short command, collapsing several steps of friction into a single interaction.
That same convenience could become a lightning rod for privacy advocates and regulators who have grown increasingly skeptical of biometric data harvesting in consumer electronics. Questions about how facial templates are stored, whether data is processed locally or in the cloud, and how access is revoked when a user leaves a household would likely feature prominently in any regulatory review. OpenAI would also have to reassure parents about safeguards for children, clarify how many faces a single device can recognize, and spell out what happens if law enforcement seeks access to stored images or recognition logs. In a market where trust can be as important as features, the way the company answers those questions may determine whether its smart speaker becomes a staple of family kitchens or a niche gadget for early adopters.
Competing in a Crowded Hardware Ecosystem
The longer OpenAI’s smart speaker remains in development limbo, the more it must contend with a maturing ecosystem of AI-infused devices from other players. Tech giants with established hardware lines can add conversational features through software updates, effectively turning millions of existing speakers, phones, and displays into AI assistants overnight. Even accessory makers and lifestyle brands are experimenting with embedded intelligence, from earbuds that translate speech on the fly to home gadgets sold through curated storefronts like The Verge’s retail shop, which highlight how quickly AI functions are becoming table stakes rather than headline features. By the time OpenAI’s device ships, consumers may view a ChatGPT-powered assistant as one option among many rather than a singular breakthrough.
That competitive backdrop raises the bar for what the final product must deliver. A modestly better voice interface or slightly more natural small talk will not be enough to dislodge incumbents that already control the smart home’s entry points. Instead, OpenAI will likely need to lean into capabilities that feel uniquely tied to its models: richer multi-turn conversations, more reliable task execution across apps and services, and perhaps a camera experience that genuinely helps with everyday problems rather than merely surveilling the room. Whether the company can achieve that while navigating a rebrand, complying with court orders, and hitting a late-2020s ship date will determine if its first major hardware experiment becomes a new pillar of the business or a cautionary tale about how legal and logistical headwinds can blunt even the most ambitious AI projects.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
