OpenAI and Jony Ive Face Hurdles in Palm-Sized Screenless AI Device

OpenAI and designer Jony Ive are encountering significant technical and logistical hurdles in developing a palm-sized, screenless artificial intelligence device, people familiar with the project said, raising the likelihood of a delay to a previously targeted launch window next year. The device, intended to sit on a table or be carried like a small smartphone, would use a microphone, camera, speaker and other sensors to respond to voice and visual cues and build contextual memory from ongoing interactions.

Engineers and executives involved in the effort say the most acute problems are not industrial design but the software and computing infrastructure required to run advanced language models reliably on a mass-market product. Securing sufficient compute capacity to power responsive, cloud-linked AI remains a key constraint. One person close to the project said OpenAI is still struggling to obtain the scale of computing resources that competitors use for their voice assistants, a gap the company must close before shipping a consumer device at scale.

The team is also wrestling with behavioral and privacy choices that go to the heart of the user experience. Developers continue to...