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Image Credits:OpenAI, edited by TechCrunch8:31 AM PDT · July 16, 2026
You whitethorn person heard that OpenAI released its archetypal portion of hardware this week: a $230 mini keyboard. You whitethorn not person heard that alongside this “command halfway for agentic work,” OpenAI besides released a ChatGPT basketball.
“This hoops comes from the Pause. Play. Prompt. campaign, a carnal reminder that creativity doesn’t conscionable unrecorded connected our screens,” the merchandise listing explains. I was not capable to find immoderate different notation of the “Pause. Play. Prompt.” run connected OpenAI’s website, but I stitchery that this is OpenAI’s mode of telling radical not to walk each time connected Codex.
Who says tech companies aren’t reasoning astir our intelligence health?
The hoops volition outgo you $70, oregon astir 56 cardinal input tokens for GPT-5. It’s a 100% rubber ball, which is simply a amended acceptable for outdoor play owed to its upwind absorption than the much costly leather balls you’ll find connected nonrecreational hoops courts. I americium pleased to cognize that OpenAI is envisioning a satellite wherever playing sports extracurricular is possible, adjacent arsenic the generative AI roar accelerates tech companies’ c emissions.
It’s hard to ideate the people lawsuit for the ChatGPT basketball. Who is this for?
Wander extracurricular the information of an AI-pilled, tokenmaxxing Silicon Valley and 1 mightiness interest astir getting bullied for bringing a ChatGPT hoops to the court. You could not wage maine $70 to locomotion onto a assemblage tribunal successful Philadelphia with this ChatGPT basketball. (If it were escaped swag from a conference, it could walk arsenic ironic — I cherish my “#FACEBOOK” tote, which is airbrushed similar a 2000s Bar Mitzvah enactment favor.)
In defence of the ChatGPT basketball, the AI manufacture isn’t precisely known for its product-market acceptable instincts. May the Humane AI Pin remainder successful peace.
Image Credits:OpenAIAlongside that $70 artifact, OpenAI is besides selling a enactment of merch with inspirational reminders, similar “Good probe takes time,” which I would reason is the cleanable attire for a startup laminitis gathering with investors who are demanding faster growth. There’s besides a definite je ne sais quoi to the $175 quarter-zip that says “research” successful cursive. The merchandise statement says that “it features a crisp collar that reminisces connected our days successful academia,” which could alienate the “I ne'er went to assemblage due to the fact that I’m a coding savant” crowd. (Also, tin an entity reminisce connected your days successful academia? Should I expect grammatically dependable sentences from radical who constitute their emails with ChatGPT?)
There’s thing incorrect with a spot of institution swag, though. If OpenAI is looking to committee immoderate ceramic artists to grant institution past done functional tableware, I would similar to propulsion my chapeau successful the ring.
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Amanda Silberling is simply a elder writer astatine TechCrunch covering the intersection of exertion and culture. She has besides written for publications similar Polygon, MTV, the Kenyon Review, NPR, and Business Insider. She is the co-host of Wow If True, a podcast astir net culture, with subject fabrication writer Isabel J. Kim. Prior to joining TechCrunch, she worked arsenic a grassroots organizer, depository educator, and movie festival coordinator. She holds a B.A. successful English from the University of Pennsylvania and served arsenic a Princeton successful Asia Fellow successful Laos.
You tin interaction oregon verify outreach from Amanda by emailing amanda@techcrunch.com or via encrypted connection astatine @amanda.100 connected Signal.
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