The head of OpenAI, Sam Altman, approached Samsung management with a proposal for close cooperation to develop a new joint gadget based on artificial intelligence. As the world’s tech giants prepare for the post-smartphone era, the move is seen as an attempt by OpenAI to join forces with the Korean corporation to challenge Apple’s dominance.
Image source: OpenAI
As Financial News reports, citing a closed question and answer session with Samsung top managers (the meeting took place on October 31, 2026), Altman described his vision of the gadget of the future. According to him, this device can become what the smartphone once became – a person’s main technological companion. However, unlike traditional phones, the new gadget will be as inconspicuous as possible. There will be no apps, and the AI itself will proactively manage the user’s physical and digital life.
OpenAI plans to release its device in 2027. It is assumed that we are talking about a smart speaker without a screen that easily fits in the palm of your hand. Altman rejected the idea of smart glasses as a potential future gadget. He noted: “They could be very useful for personal productivity. But it seems uncomfortable to me if the interlocutor is looking at something else during a conversation. There is a feeling that technology is coming between people.”
In the conversation, Altman emphasized that next-generation devices “will collect data from the physical world,” so society will have to grapple with issues related to data privacy and over-reliance on AI.
During a meeting with heads of Samsung’s electronics, finance and biotechnology divisions, Altman called for a full-scale AI transformation at the company. In his opinion, using neural networks only as an auxiliary tool increases efficiency by 2–3 times, but transferring entire work processes to AI can speed up work by 100 times at lower costs.
As an example, Altman cited his company OpenAI, where three months ago AI was introduced into all internal processes. According to him, the Codex AI agent is already capable of making management decisions: when the head of a company requests the hiring of additional employees, the system objects and demands to justify why the current problem cannot be solved using AI.
“In the mobile age, those who acted first survived, while those who were a year or two late were left behind. In three to five years, companies that do not rely on AI will not be able to remain competitive,” Altman concluded.
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