Apple-5 All New Products Coming; Musk Aiming to Take SpaceX Public; YouTube Working to Curb ‘AI Slop’; OpenAI Will Ship 1st Hardware in 2026

It’s unusual for Apple to release more than one new product in a year, but this year will be a banner one for Cupertino. The Apple folks are reportedly going to bow 5 all-new products this year. Macrumors.com reports that most of these have been rumored for some time. At any rate, they include a smart home hub with screen (honestly, mockups look like a HomePod with an iPad attached), a FaceID doorbell, a cheaper MacBook with an A18 chip borrowed from the iPhone line, a folding iPhone, and…this one seems like the fabled ‘one more thing’ of the Jobs era…augmented reality glasses. While the latter may not make it out until 2027, Apple will likely show them off this year. It’s expected they will be similar to Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses…and like the latest of those, they will have in-lens display. 

We just reported that Anthropic, makers of Claude, plans an IPO this year. Now, Elon Musk has flipped, and will try to do an IPO of SpaceX this year, with the specific intent to beat Anthropic’s public offering, and also Google, which wants to build space based data centers. According to engadget.com, this rush has to do with Musk wanting to build AI data centers in space. Google recently announced it was looking into putting a data center in space, with test launches scheduled for 2027. Musk reportedly wants to beat his rival to the punch, but SpaceX would need the billions of dollars in capital that an IPO would deliver. Putting a giant center in space isn’t cheap. Musk wants to complete the IPO by July. 

Right now, over a million YouTube channels are using AI tools daily. Now, variety.com says that YouTube’s chief Neal Mohan has announced that the platform is taking steps to minimize the spread of low-quality AI content — aka “AI slop.” Mohan did note that later this year, “you’ll be able to create a Short using your own likeness,” as well as produce games with a text prompt and experiment with music. The YouTube chief continued, writing  “Throughout this evolution, AI will remain a tool for expression, not a replacement.” 

OpenAi is apparently getting set to ship their first product this year, and it will likely be ear buds. You may recall that we reported earlier that OpenAI had acquired Jony Ive’s startup io. Well now, techcrunch.com reports that the hardware may ship in the last half of this year. We do know that the device won’t have a screen and will be pocket sized. For now, the gadget is code-named ‘Sweet Pea.’ It is expected the design will be quite unique compared to most existing ear buds. They will run on a custom 2 nanometer processor and handle AI tasks locally instead of sending requests to the cloud. OpenAI has talked to both China’s Luxshare, and also to Taiwan’s Foxconn. They plan to ship 40-50 million units of the gadget.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.