The AI Tamagotchis are coming
TL;DR
Sam Altman onstage at OpenAI’s DevDay 2026. | Photo: Hayden Field / The Verge While AI has made plenty of inroads on people's phones and computers, it's largely failed in dedicated devices. But over the next year, two major AI companies, Meta and OpenAI, will attempt to change that. And they're apparently betting on a similar path: testing appetites for physical hardware with their cutesy software agents.
Nauti's Take
For small teams, the first test is daily usefulness: an AI device needs a clearly defined job it can handle faster and more reliably than a phone, browser, or headset. Before building around one, verify offline behavior, microphone and camera access, data retention, battery life, and a clean export path for your data.
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