What Is That Mysterious Metallic Device US Chief Design Officer Joe Gebbia Is Using?

Joe Gebbia, Co-Founder The US Chief Design Officer of Airbnb and appointed by President Trump was spotted using a mysterious metal tool in San Francisco today. In a social media post viewed more than 500,000 times on Twitter, a man resembling Gebbia is sitting in a coffee shop with an espresso. She is wearing metal earrings that double as her ears, and has a matching clamshell-shaped disc on the counter in front of her.

After the video was posted Monday morning, social media users immediately suggested it could be some kind of prototype from OpenAI’s upcoming line of hardware devices designed in partnership with famed Apple designer Jony Ive. An OpenAI spokesperson declined to comment on the possible Gebbia video after being contacted by WIRED. Gebbia also did not respond to a request for comment.

The device Gebbia is wearing appears to be similar to the hardware seen in a fake OpenAI ad that was widely circulated on Reddit and social media in February. That video appears to be shown back seat Actor Alexander Skarsgård interacting with an AI device that had a pair of similar-looking earbuds and a circular disc. At the time, OpenAI determined the widely viewed video was not genuine. “Fake news,” OpenAI President Greg Brockman wrote at the time, responding to a social media post.

The earbuds seen in Gebbia’s video on Monday also appear similar in shape to the Huawei FreeClip 2, a pair of open earbuds released earlier this year. However, the clamshell seen on the coffee counter next to the Gebbia is different from Huawei’s most recent headphone cases. It would also be quite surprising if any government officials were seen using Huawei technology, given that the Chinese company is effectively banned from selling its phones in the US due to security concerns.

WIRED’s audio experts say he’s likely wearing open earbuds, as Gebbia’s pair share some similarities with Soundcore’s AeroClips or Sony’s LinkBuds clips, though the cases on those buds don’t match the ones on the table in front of Gebbia. WIRED also ran the photos and videos through software that attempts to identify AI-generated output and other deepfakes. Detection software from a company called Hive says that it is unlikely that this imagery of Gebbia was generated by AI. Nevertheless, AI detectors are not always reliable and may include inaccurate outputs. It’s possible that the entire post could be an artificial hoax.

Could this be some kind of soft launch teaser for OpenAI’s hardware? The timing of this trickle-out would make sense, as the company could ship devices to consumers as early as 2027. Nevertheless, OpenAI has denied any involvement in the previous camouflage advertisement for the metallic AI hardware with its shiny earbuds and matching discs.