OpenAI's first branded hardware is... a light-up keyboard?

As rumors continue to swirl about OpenAI’s work on a personalized smart speaker and other hardware, the company is today rolling out its first branded device. The $230 Codex Micro is a specialized, RGB-lit mini-keyboard designed to let users monitor and quickly interact with multiple Codex agents with a glance and a few clicks. The device is described as a “limited-run collaboration” with Work Louder, which already sells a very similar-looking Creator Micro line of customizable square keyboards targeted at creative professionals. The Codex Micro differentiates itself from those mainly through six frosted keys in the top two rows, which offer color-coded live feedback on up to six Codex threads, even when they are not in focus on-screen. While the Codex Micro is at heart simply a slightly modified version of existing third-party hardware, it features prominent OpenAI branding on the box and on the face of the device itself (along with a “You can just build things” tagline referencing OpenAI’s Super Bowl ad). The “limited run” partnership is also being described as accepting orders only “while supplies last,” suggesting that long-term availability is still up in the air (a representative did not respond to questions about total availability as of press time). Still, the launch of the first OpenAI-branded hardware highlights the company’s ambitions to expand beyond LLM-based software. Those ambitions have been apparent since at least 2023, when OpenAI reportedly started collaborating with former Apple design chief Jony Ive. Last May, OpenAI acquired Ive’s design firm LoveFrom, a partnership reportedly focused on a handheld, screenless device that accepts audio and visual input from around the user.