OpenAI is Planning a Smart Doughnut - DTNS 5327

**Tom Merritt** (0:08)
This is the Daily Tech News for Friday, August 7th, 2026 We tell you what you need to know, give you important context, and try to help each other understand.

**Huyen Tue Dao** (0:16)
Today, Bloomberg has the first major details for OpenAI's first hardware device, a donut that talks to you.

**Tom Merritt** (0:24)
But sadly, it's not a cat. That's a Dungeon Crawler Carl reference. I'm Tom Merritt.
Let's start with what you need to know with the big story.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has a non-Apple bit of inside information this time, although I guess it's Apple-agation in a way. He has details on what OpenAI's first hardware device, in collaboration with former Apple employee Johnny Ive's love from, might end up being. According to people familiar with the matter, it's a hockey puck-sized device with a donut shape. Although, as Swin and I were discussing before the show, we don't know if he means it has a hole in it or not, and whether they'll sell a donut hole separately. You can carry it around in one hand. It will provide voice access to an AI-first computer to help you get stuff done. Sounds like ChatGPT voice mode with your most advanced ChatGPT agents on the backend in a dedicated device. It will use the most advanced models that OpenAI has available, and will learn about you over time, so it can respond more accurately and more realistically. German sources say it might also have moving parts, so it doesn't just lay there like a dead piece of plastic. It will also have more traditional features, like speakers, microphones, lights to indicate when it's listening, and will have a camera, so if you want to show it something like, what is this, or can you take a picture of this, it'll be able to process visual information. Apparently, they're thinking it'll cost around $300 to $400, and they're aiming for a 2027 release. When do you want the donut?

**Huyen Tue Dao** (2:02)
If it... I mean, kind... I'm curious, because this isn't even before all of this. We have had several kind of mini-generations of attempts at an AI companion, AI device, like the Rabbit and the Humane Pen, or...

**Tom Merritt** (2:19)
Yeah, Humane AI, right. Yeah, yeah.

**Huyen Tue Dao** (2:21)
And of course, for reasons that really, to be fair, were not really...
The AI portion and whether AI is the sense that you wear with you or carry along with you, whether the actual utility or value of that, that question was not why those things failed, I don't think. There was a lot of kerfuffle around those. So I do think it's interesting that now we've come around, now that we do have much more impressive models, much more adoption, widespread daily life, normal people using, normal people adoption of, especially things, especially well-known models like JTBT. This is very, very interesting. It does seem that pretty much every, pretty much like most sectors have some company trying to do something with hardware and AI. It just feels like the thing to do. So I would be really curious.
Obviously, right now, we still widely use cell phones or mobile phones, smartphones, as our everyday carry of technology. So I do think it's really interesting. I don't know if I would use one out of curiosity. I don't know if I would use one out of utility just because I already carry my phone, and women have famously small pockets. So but I do think it's really interesting to have someone like OpenAI get into this market, and maybe this is the right time to get into it. I don't know. Although when it says it has moving parts, I couldn't help but think, and this is a me problem, not anyone else's problem. I was imagining something from like Sid from Toy Story, where it sweated its front legs and crawl around. Which is not, I just start crawling around. I don't think it would be that, but I do think that's actually very interesting that maybe something that makes it feel a little more analog. I think a lot of like CMF, Nothing Smaller brand, where they have like little ear pod cases that have like dials and wheels and things like, things that kind of make it feel a little more tactile. If they do something like that, I do think that's interesting, trying to blend this kind of, this current like vision that we have of like AI assistance and chat GBT kind of being almost like, they do have a voice, but they tend to be very abstract, right? Cause they're coming from our phones or from our screens. Giving it kind of a form, maybe that's just one way they're trying to get us to, I don't know, invest in them more personally. I don't know.