While AI has made plenty of inroads on people's phones and computers, it has largely failed in dedicated devices. But over the next year, two major AI companies, Meta and OpenAI, will attempt to change that. And they are apparently betting on a similar path: testing appetites for physical hardware with their cutesy software agents.
Hardware is hard, as the tech industry mantra goes. Dedicated AI devices like the Friend and Humane AI Pin have inspired mainly frustration and backlash, which may only worsen as public anger toward AI grows. Meta and OpenAI, however, are both pushing ahead. OpenAI is working with famed ex-Apple designer Jony Ive and plans to ship no earlier than February 2027. Meta aims to launch a pendant-like device sooner, before this year's holiday shopping season.
OpenAI debuted a major new AI agent platform called Dots, complete with personalizable colored blobs with eyes. When asked whether Dots would make their way into a future physical hardware device, CEO Sam Altman replied that it seems like a very reasonable thing to assume. Meta, meanwhile, is more directly tying its hardware to the recently released Muse agent. The device is called the Muse Charm, and it bears a screen featuring its cuddly-looking Muse AI agent, giving it the air of a Tamagotchi.
Both companies have likely learned from other companies' failed hardware rollouts, and their resulting strategy seems to be soft-launching AI agents before hard-launching the hardware. Their solution for hacking the hardware problem is to prime the market by getting people used to AI agents, hoping people will spread the word that they really work now.
Both companies' main bet is that, after years of less-than-impressive AI agents, they can finally deliver a useful everyday tool that will break through to a broader public market. But after Muse's concerning exploits in Facebook Marketplace, and a Dots voice demo that went awry at DevDay, there is apparently still some work to do.
