OpenAI Is Building a 'Family of Devices': What Greg Brockman Revealed About Hardware, the Apple Lawsuit, and the ChatGPT Mess

Brockman did not confirm or deny the specific rumors reported elsewhere — including Bloomberg's report that the first device is a screenless, movable smart speaker being built as an AI companion, or a separate chip development effort . He declined to give a release timeline, saying only that hardware is "coming soon" . Reports from The Information and Bloomberg have also described prototypes for AR glasses, a voice recorder, and a wearable pin, but Brockman did not discuss these .

Brockman's Limited Response to Apple's Trade-Secrets Lawsuit

Apple filed a lawsuit on July 10, 2026, accusing OpenAI of orchestrating "a pattern of theft" by poaching Apple employees and coaxing them to hand over proprietary hardware designs and confidential information .

Brockman gave a deliberately limited response, citing active litigation :

"It's active litigation, so not something that I want to talk about, but all I can say is we're very committed to a long-term roadmap here and that we are focused on our own development and technology. That's what we're interested in."

This mirrors OpenAI's earlier public statement (from July 14) that it was "not aware of any evidence" that Apple's lawsuit has merit .

ChatGPT Desktop Redesign: 'Kind of a Mess' — But the Work Tab Will Disappear

On July 9, 2026, OpenAI merged the standalone Codex coding app into the ChatGPT desktop app, creating a unified interface with three tabs: Chat, Work, and Codex — and adding a new agentic mode called ChatGPT Work powered by GPT-5.6 . Users immediately found the interface confusing, especially the difficulty of finding chat history .

Brockman admitted the redesign is "kind of a mess" and that the company rushed the integration .

Key details from Brockman's interview:

• The Work tab will disappear. Brockman said OpenAI plans to eliminate the separate Work tab entirely in a future update, returning to a tab-free, simpler design. He framed the change as moving toward a "magic" interface where the model figures out the right mode automatically — no user toggling needed .
• No hard timeline was given for when the Work tab will be removed, but Brockman indicated the company is "working on it" .
• User growth: Brockman revealed that ChatGPT now has 500 million weekly active users, up from roughly 400 million earlier in 2026 .

Voice as the Dominant Computing Mode

Brockman predicted that voice will become the dominant way people interact with computers over the next few years, positioning OpenAI's hardware and audio-model investments squarely behind that thesis . He described the shift as moving away from screen-first interaction toward a conversational, audio-native paradigm — a vision that directly aligns with the screenless smart speaker mentioned in earlier reports .