- New leak says OpenAI is making a wearable to take on Apple AirPods
- The device is codenamed “Sweetpea” and functions as an earpiece for ChatGPT.
- It will be supposed to stay behind your ear, not inside
OpenAI is perhaps best known for its ChatGPT chatbot, but we also know that the artificial intelligence (AI) pioneer has teamed up with former Apple design guru Jony Ive to develop a set of wearable products – said to include an AI-powered pen – all driven by its AI algorithms. Now a new revelation has shed light on exactly what OpenAI might be cooking up in its secret labs.
Indeed, a new leak on X has revealed a mysterious new OpenAI device named “Sweetpea”. It would be an AI-powered behind-the-ear wearable aimed squarely at taking on Apple’s popular AirPods headphones.
However, don’t expect them to sound like your standard in-ear headphones. Instead, the leaker – who calls himself Smart Pikachu – claims that a large part of each Sweetpea module will be worn behind your ear. This might make them seem more like a set of hearing aids than a traditional pair of headphones.
The behind-the-ear segment could include the product’s battery and processor, with the advantage that positioning them this way could allow the use of a larger battery. Since the AI device will always be on and ready to help you, longer duration on a single charge could be a real selling point.
Aside from that, Smart Pikachu says that Sweetpea will feature a custom chip to “replace iPhone actions by commanding Siri.” The timing is fortuitous, as Apple just tapped Google Gemini to help with Siri’s upcoming AI overhaul, meaning this could be another way for Apple’s virtual assistant to gain new features in the future.
And as suggested by Wareable, the Sweetpea image included by Smart Pikachu contained references to an “ultrasonic transmitter” and signal detection sensors. This, Wareable notes, means the device “could offer environmental sensing or contextual awareness, rather than simply acting as a passive Bluetooth receiver for ChatGPT.”
When might we see Sweetpea? Smart Pikachu estimates the release date to be “close to September” 2026, with 40 to 50 million units expected. This is an ambitious goal for OpenAI’s first-ever wearable, but given the success of ChatGPT, it could be possible.
But be careful, because the leaker specifies that the price could be high. Indeed, the price of Sweetpea’s materials and components is close to the cost of a smartphone, with the added fact that its “device function” [are] said to be stronger.
Still, Sweetpea aligns with a trend we noticed at CES 2026, where a growing number of companies were touting AI-driven wearables as the next big thing. Perhaps OpenAI’s Sweetpea project will finally be the tool to make a breakthrough and bring these products into the mainstream.
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