Sam Altman is trying to sell the future of AI hardware with a surprisingly human benchmark: you should want to touch it, hold it, even put it in your mouth. The OpenAI chief and legendary designer Jony Ive are quietly building a screenless gadget that they describe in almost sensual terms, positioning it as a calmer, more tactile alternative to the smartphone. Their early hints sketch a device that is less like a mini computer and more like a physical companion for an AI that increasingly lives in the cloud.
Instead of chasing bigger displays or faster chips, Altman and Ive are talking about emotional “vibes,” object intimacy, and a form factor that invites fidgeting as much as querying. The result is a product that, sight unseen, is already forcing the industry to ask whether the next big AI platform will be something you stare at or something you simply feel.
The strange “lick test” that launched a thousand hot takes
Altman’s most viral tease of the device came in the form of a design gut check: he reportedly told collaborators that a truly great object should make you want to lick it. That line, relayed from internal conversations about the OpenAI hardware project, has since become shorthand for the team’s obsession with physical allure and the kind of instinctive attraction usually reserved for high-end audio gear or collectible toys, not AI terminals. The “lick test” is less about literal taste and more about whether the object is so inviting that your hands and senses are drawn to it before your rational brain catches up, a standard that fits neatly with Jony Ive’s long history of fetishizing materials and edges.
Accounts of those early design discussions describe Altman and Ive fixating on how the prototype feels in the hand, how its surfaces catch the light, and how its shape might encourage people to roll it, squeeze it, or even bite it when they are thinking, a level of tactile ambition that has been highlighted in reporting on the so-called “lick test” device. Other coverage of the prototype underscores the same theme, noting that the pair have talked about a gadget that users will want to touch, lick, or bite as a sign that they have nailed the emotional connection between human and hardware, rather than just shipping another anonymous plastic puck.
A screenless AI companion, not another smartphone
Altman has been explicit that he does not want to build a rival to the iPhone so much as an escape hatch from it. In recent comments, he has described the OpenAI gadget as a screenless device that strips away the visual overload of modern phones and instead leans on voice, ambient awareness, and subtle cues to mediate your relationship with AI. The idea is to create a dedicated object for interacting with large language models without the constant pull of notifications, feeds, and apps that define the smartphone era.
Reports on the project say Altman has been workshopping a simple, almost minimal interaction model, with one account quoting him enthusing that the concept is “so simple” as he teased a screenless AI device that lives somewhere between a smart speaker and a personal token. Additional reporting describes the hardware as OpenAI’s first serious push into consumer devices, with Altman positioning it as a way to bring the company’s models into everyday life without forcing people to live inside a glass rectangle, a framing that aligns with coverage of his plans for a first dedicated AI gadget.
Jony Ive’s quest for “peace and calm” in hardware form
If Altman is supplying the AI ambition, Ive appears to be supplying the mood. The longtime Apple designer has been described as chasing a feeling of “peace and calm” with the OpenAI device, a deliberate contrast to the hyper-stimulating design of most consumer electronics. Instead of bright icons and buzzing alerts, the pair are reportedly exploring materials, curves, and weight that evoke the quiet satisfaction of a well-made analog object, closer to a favorite pen or a stone you keep in your pocket than a slab of OLED.
Altman has leaned into that framing in public, saying the prototype gives off the vibe of sitting in the most beautiful cabin by a lake in the mountains, a metaphor that has been cited in coverage of his effort to build something more peaceful and calm than the iPhone. Other reports on the collaboration describe Ive and Altman sketching an “elegantly simple” object that avoids visible complexity and instead hides its sophistication behind a quiet exterior, with one account detailing their shared vision for an elegantly simple device that feels more like a natural extension of the body than a gadget demanding constant attention.
Touch, bite, repeat: why tactility matters so much here
The repeated references to touching, licking, and biting are not just marketing shock value, they point to a deeper bet that the next wave of AI hardware will be defined by tactility rather than screen real estate. Altman and Ive seem to be betting that as AI becomes more ambient and conversational, the physical object that anchors it can shrink, simplify, and lean into texture and weight instead of pixels. In that world, the device is less a portal to the internet and more a worry stone that happens to house a powerful assistant.
Several reports on the prototype emphasize that the team wants people to feel an almost childlike urge to interact with the object physically, with one account saying Altman and Ive believe users should want to touch, lick, or bite the device if they have done their job right. Another report goes further, describing how the pair have talked about a hardware prototype that users will want to lick and bite, framing that impulse as a sign of deep emotional resonance rather than a design failure, a detail that has been highlighted in coverage of their lickable hardware prototype.
The cabin-by-the-lake vibe and its critics
Altman’s cabin-by-the-lake metaphor has quickly become a Rorschach test for how people feel about the project. To fans, it suggests a rare attempt to make technology feel restorative instead of addictive, a device that might sit quietly on a desk like a piece of sculpture until you need it. To skeptics, the language sounds like the kind of overblown lifestyle branding that has followed Silicon Valley hardware for years, promising transcendence and delivering another subscription.
One commentator seized on Altman’s description of the prototype as evoking the most beautiful cabin by a lake in the mountains and contrasted it with the more mundane reality of a device that will still be listening to your voice and routing your queries through massive data centers, a critique laid out in a piece dissecting the cabin-by-the-lake pitch. That tension between the poetic way Altman and Ive talk about the object and the industrial reality of AI infrastructure is likely to shadow the device all the way to launch, especially as regulators and privacy advocates scrutinize how intimate hardware like this will handle always-on microphones and personal data.
What we have actually seen and heard so far
For all the lyrical talk, concrete glimpses of the hardware remain scarce. Altman has discussed the project in interviews and public appearances, but the team has not unveiled a final design, detailed specs, or a shipping timeline. What does exist are scattered hints in conversations and on-stage remarks, including a widely shared video appearance where Altman talked through his vision for a calmer AI device and hinted at the collaboration with Ive without holding up a finished product.
In one such appearance, captured in a video interview, Altman described wanting hardware that fades into the background while still giving people a tangible anchor for their AI interactions, reinforcing the idea that the object is meant to be present but not demanding. Separate reporting has framed the project as OpenAI’s first serious move into branded hardware, with Altman reportedly telling partners that the goal is to create a device that feels as thoughtfully resolved as the best Apple products while serving as a dedicated home for OpenAI’s models, a positioning echoed in coverage of his plans for a first AI hardware device with Ive.
The stakes for OpenAI, Apple alumni, and the AI hardware race
Behind the playful talk of licking and biting sits a serious strategic gamble. For OpenAI, shipping a successful consumer device would mark a shift from being primarily a model provider to owning a full stack that runs from data center to living room. That would put the company in more direct competition with platform players like Apple, Google, and Amazon, all of which already have hardware footholds through products like the iPhone, Pixel phones, and Echo speakers. It would also give OpenAI a way to shape how people experience its models without relying on third-party operating systems or app stores.
For Jony Ive and his design studio, the project is a chance to define a new category in the post-iPhone era, one where the most important feature is not a display but the way an object feels in the hand and fits into daily rituals. Reporting on the collaboration has stressed that both sides see the device as a way to reset expectations around AI hardware, with Altman describing a future where people carry a small, calm object that connects them to powerful models in the cloud, a vision that has been detailed in coverage of his hardware ambitions with Ive and reinforced by reports that he wants the gadget to be as simple and focused as possible, in line with the “so simple” screenless concept.
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