An OpenAI ear wearable rumor just got a lot more concrete, at least on paper. According to Smart Pikachu, a supply-chain–focused leaker, OpenAI is developing a portable audio product designed to live on your ear, not in your pocket.
The posts attach the codename Sweetpea to the project and describe a behind-the-ear setup where most of the hardware sits discreetly out of sight. Smaller components are said to detach, which reads less like traditional earbuds and more like a wearable you keep on for longer stretches.
OpenAI hasn’t confirmed anything. There’s still no price, no final product name, and no clarity on launch markets. But the details that have surfaced point toward something more intentional than a simple audio accessory.
What makes this rumor stick is the physical description. A behind-the-ear fit can solve several issues that plague tiny buds: stability during movement, better microphone placement, and comfort during all-day wear.
One shared image, purportedly a component layout, includes labels suggesting skin contact, signal pickup, and even an ultrasonic transmitter. If authentic, that implies the device may do more than just play audio. It could be designed to listen and sense, even in subtle ways, which would help explain why the form factor avoids becoming yet another AirPods clone.
This aligns with a broader shift in wearables: less about screens and taps, more about ambient, always-available computing.
Smart Pikachu also claims the project moved manufacturing plans from Luxshare to Foxconn, with Vietnam mentioned as the preferred production base and a deliberate effort to avoid China for this build.
Those kinds of supplier conversations don’t usually happen for experiments. They tend to surface when a product is being planned at consumer scale. It doesn’t guarantee a launch, but it does suggest OpenAI is treating this like a real hardware bet, not a side project.