Overview
- Multiple reports say OpenAI unified engineering, product, and research groups in recent weeks to overhaul voice tech that insiders view as behind its text models in accuracy and speed.
- The next audio-model architecture is reported to deliver more natural and emotive speech, give more precise answers, handle interruptions, and speak at the same time as the user.
- The model is expected in the first quarter of 2026, with a follow-on consumer device targeted roughly for 2026–2027, and OpenAI has not announced an official timeline.
- OpenAI is discussing a family of largely voice-driven products such as glasses or a screenless smart speaker, with supply-chain reports of a pen-like or iPod-shuffle-sized device remaining unconfirmed.
- The pivot tracks a broader shift toward voice interfaces across Big Tech and startups, even as current ChatGPT usage skews to text and past screenless wearables have faced commercial and privacy challenges.