OpenAI's push into hardware is picking up notable talent from Apple. According to reports surfaced by MSN, Paul Meade — the Apple vice president who ran the company's Vision Pro headset — is reportedly leaving to join OpenAI's hardware team.
Meade isn't just any executive. A separate MSN report describes him as a key figure who led engineering for the Vision Pro and also worked on Apple's secret smart glasses project. In other words, OpenAI is hiring someone with deep experience in exactly the kind of wearable, face-worn computing that many expect to define the next phase of consumer tech.
The move fits a bigger storyline. OpenAI has been building a hardware effort alongside famed former Apple designer Jony Ive, and the new hire adds engineering muscle to that ambition. The Times frames the central question bluntly, asking whether Jony Ive and OpenAI can create "an iPhone killer."
What might that product look like? Digital Trends reads OpenAI's hiring from Apple as a hint that ChatGPT-powered wearables "for your face" could be on the way — suggesting glasses or headset-style devices with AI built in at the core, rather than bolted on.
All of these reports are described as reporting rather than confirmed announcements, and neither Apple nor OpenAI has detailed any finished product. Still, the direction is clear: OpenAI wants to build hardware, and it is recruiting the people who built Apple's most ambitious wearables to do it.
Why it matters: if the company behind ChatGPT can pair Jony Ive's design pedigree with Apple-trained hardware engineers, the result could become the first serious challenger to the smartphone as the device we reach for first.