đź”´ OpenAI's Going Physical

PLUS: Apple solved wearables, the end for Hollywood

February 23, 2026

Reading time: 5 minutes

🗞️In this edition

  • OpenAI's Building a Camera That Watches Your Home

  • Sponsored by Hugo: The AI-Native Support Agent Built for Real Businesses

  • The Apple Glasses Launch Just Became Real

  • The AI Tool That Cost 7 Cents and Terrified Hollywood

  • In other AI news –

    • Anthropic Said No to the Pentagon

    • Why Everyone at Meta Now Calls Themselves an AI Builder

    • Every OpenAI Departure Creates a Billion-Dollar Startup

  • 4 must-try AI tools

Three companies just made AI ambient.

For decades, you had to go to technology—open apps, type prompts, stare at screens. This week showed the shift to technology that's just there. Watching. Listening. Creating. No permission required.

This isn't about better products. It's about the moment AI stopped being a tool you pick up and became an environment you live inside.

What's happening:

Smart speaker launches 2027. Priced $200-$300. Includes camera that identifies objects on your table. Listens to nearby conversations. Has Face ID for purchasing. Over 200 employees building it.

Jony Ive's team is designing it. The man who made every iconic Apple device now makes the AI that observes your life.

Why this is important:

ChatGPT works when you ask it questions. This watches when you're not asking. Processes what it sees. Remembers what it hears. The shift is from tool you control to presence that observes.

Smart glasses coming 2028. The question isn't whether the tech works. It's whether you're ready for AI that doesn't wait to be summoned.

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• Designed as an AI agent, not a legacy chatbot
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What's happening:

Two cameras embedded in the frame. One for computer vision. One for photos. All components fit inside—no external battery. Ships within a year.

The Q.ai acquisition suddenly makes sense. Apple didn't just buy silent voice control. They bought the missing piece that makes glasses work in public.

Why this is important:

Meta sold millions of Ray-Bans. But watch how many people actually use the AI features in public. The gap between ownership and usage is where Apple sees the opening.

Silent voice control isn't a feature improvement. It's the difference between glasses you own and glasses you actually wear every day.

Comments from the editor:

Vision Pro proved Apple can build incredible hardware nobody buys. These glasses prove they learned the lesson: don't launch until the behavior makes sense.

Meta established the hardware. Apple's betting they can make it socially acceptable to use. If they're right, we just saw the shift from early adopters to everyone else.

What's happening:

ByteDance released Seedance 2.0. Users typed prompts. Got Tom Cruise fighting Brad Pitt. Spider-Man. Darth Vader. All photorealistic. Cost: 7 cents per clip.

Disney sent cease-and-desist letters. So did Paramount. SAG-AFTRA called it an attack on creators. Hollywood's demanding it stop immediately. The problem? Millions already have access.

Why this is important:

The panic isn't about copyright. It's about what happens when making movies stops requiring movie studios.

For a century, filmmaking meant cameras, crews, budgets, distribution deals. Seedance proved you need a prompt and 7 cents. The Deadpool screenwriter watched one clip and said "it's likely over for us."

Hollywood's fighting to protect IP. But the real threat isn't stolen characters. It's that anyone can now create what only studios could afford to make.

👩🏼‍🚒Discover mind-blowing AI tools

  1. Jason AI - A tool for automating B2B conversations and bookings

  2. Voxify - A tool that allows users to create realistic voice-overs in multiple languages and accents 

  3. VModel - AI-powered tool that uses virtual models to showcase clothing and accessories on e-commerce platforms

  4. WellyBox - A tool that helps users track and manage their receipts and invoices

This week wasn't about AI getting smarter. It was about AI getting into places it couldn't go before.

Your home. Your face. Your movies. The pattern is the same: technology stopped being something you need expertise to use. It became something that uses you.

The companies winning aren't building better AI. They're building AI that doesn't ask permission to exist in your life.

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