OpenAI released its first piece of hardware last week — a fancy little keyboard designed to pair with ChatGPT. Developed in collaboration with specialist keyboard designer Work Louder, the Micro is essentially a workplace innovation that many techies will love and may leave a few wondering.
OpenAI’s entry into the hardware market did not arrive without drama. Several weeks ago, Apple sued the artificial intelligence lab, accusing it of commercial theft — starting what is sure to be a lengthy legal battle. Meanwhile, news of another smart home product being developed at OpenAI has also caused concern, as the alleged device – which is being built to pair with ChatGPT – was reportedly developed by ex-Apple engineers.
Until the legal battle is over and OpenAI’s broader hardware ambitions are realized, the most the startup has to offer is the Micro — a funky little keyboard clearly designed to please the tech industry’s code monkeys.
OpenAI sent TechCrunch a Micro test unit. The first big thing you notice when you first handle the keyboard is that it’s a sturdy little device — enough so that, if the AI accessory didn’t run out, it could easily double as a paperweight. The other thing you might notice (and I’m not the just one to point out)it’s that the packaging – a pristine white box with a sleek, clean aesthetic – is pretty coded by Apple. Make of it what you will.
The keyboard layout includes six frozen “agent” keys at the top of the keyboard, which can be customized to perform specific tasks within ChatGPT or the Codex agency coding tool. Below these are six command keys, which can be used to control these programs. You can pair the Micro with your computer either via a Bluetooth connection or via a USB cable.
Perhaps the most convenient thing Micro offers is a button for voice dictation — meaning you just tell the app what you want it to do and it gets to work for you. Just hold down the dictation button and start speaking. When you’re done, hit the “submit” button next to it to submit your request.
You can customize your Micro keyboard in ChatGPT itself, where a Micro tab lets you customize everything from the brightness of the light from the keys to the specific commands and projects you want associated with those keys.
Die-hard coders—the device’s real target audience—haven’t exactly embraced it. Reviews from Redditors are largely negative, with one Reddit user calling it “a farce and not a real product,” and others say that serious coders won’t touch it. A review from the smaller independent shop Aftermath was even tougherfinding the $230 price tag hard to justify next to cheaper DIY and off-the-shelf alternatives. (The title of this review: “OpenAI’s expensive macropad seems designed to specifically annoy me.”)
It’s definitely the case that new users may need some time to figure out how the Micro works and what to do with it.
Once I figured out how to program the keyboard to my liking, I found that it was actually a lot of fun. You can assign different ChatGPT sessions to specific keys, which then allow you to switch between all your different projects. When you combine this with the dictation button, it makes the whole experience much more efficient and enjoyable.
But there is still a learning curve. The Micro’s buttons are color coded. White means an agent is idle, blue means it is thinking, green means a task has completed, and red means an error has occurred. You should memorize this, along with which specific works are encoded in each key.
The big question is whether the Micro Keyboard is functionally easier to use than continuing to work on your laptop. Bottom line: Why spend a week learning how to program and operate this thing when I already know how to use my computer mouse and keyboard?
Ultimately, your experience with Micro will largely depend on how much you use ChatGPT. Since I don’t use AI much everyday, I’m probably not the target audience for it.
That said, if you’re a heavy ChatGPT user, you’ve got $230 to spare, and like vintage clicky hardware, the Micro probably isn’t the worst purchase you could make – it might even brighten your day a bit.
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