AI assistants

The AI assistant is the product, the gadget is just its cage

The AI assistant is the product, and the gadget is just its cage. That's the takeaway from this week's Vergecast, where David and Nilay tear through Microsoft's high-end laptop, Amazon's fancy Android tablet, and Apple's headfirst dive into the smart home. The hardware is shiny, sure, but every single launch is really just a vessel for the same idea: the AI should run the computer. Whether that's even the right idea is the question worth asking. It's gadget season, and the spec sheets are full of clever hinges and long battery claims, but the actual strategy is suspiciously uniform. If you want a deeper cut on the weirdness, the Apple robot arm piece is worth a read. Spoot's take? The cages are getting prettier. The thing inside still hasn't proven it can fly.