Tech Brew Ride Home - Apple’s Wearable AI Pin

Episode Date: January 22, 2026

Apple is developing their own AI wearable, the size of an AirTag. Anthropic overhauls Claude’s constitution. South Korea is the latest place to ride the AI rocket ship. And I think I know why your boss thinks AI is the solution to everything: it’s the solution to all of the work THEY have to do. Apple Developing AI Wearable Pin (The Information) Anthropic rewrites Claude’s guiding principles—and entertains the idea that its AI might have ‘some kind of consciousness or moral status’ (Fortune) Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launches satellite internet service to rival SpaceX, Amazon (CNBC) South Korean leader celebrates ‘Kospi 5,000’ moment as stock market soars (FT) CEOs Say AI Is Making Work More Efficient. Employees Tell a Different Story. (WSJ) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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GoogleFi Wireless is not subject to data traffic deprioritization during times of high network usage. Welcome to the TechBrew Ride Home for Thursday, January 22nd, 2026. I'm Brian McCullough today. Apple is developing their own AI wearable, the size of an air tag. Anthropic has rewritten Claude's Constitution. South Korea is the latest place to ride the AI rocket ship, and I think I know why your boss thinks AI is the solution to everything. It's the solution to all the work they have to do. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. There's a lot of chatter about using AI agents right now, but no one seems to be talking about. about how these agents aren't always perfect. Sometimes they delete the wrong files or make changes you didn't authorize. And when that happens, you're left to clean up the mess.

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pin with cameras, a speaker, microphones, and wireless charging set for release as early as 2027. Also, I'm going to put this in the, no, if you're going to do this, you need to release this like yesterday file. Quote, Apple's development is in the very early stages and could still be cancelled. Still, Apple is endeavoring to move faster than usual to try and stay competitive because of Open AI, one of the people said. It's planning to manufacture roughly 20 million units at launch, the person added. Apple's PIN joins a growing portfolio of AI powered products the tech giant has under development, including AirPods equipped with enhanced sensors, a security camera, smart glasses, and augmented reality glasses, according to multiple people.

familiar with the projects. Apple is also working on a home product featuring a small display, speakers, and a robotic swiveling base designed with a heavy emphasis on AI features. That device could be released as soon as this spring, according to two of the people. Apple's pin, which is a thin, flat circular disc with an aluminum and glass shell, features two cameras, a standard lens and a wide-angle lens on its front face, designed to capture photos and videos of the user's surroundings the people said. It also includes three microphones, to pick up sounds in the area surrounding the person wearing it. It has a speaker, a physical button, along one of its edges, and a magnetic inductive charging interface on its back,

similar to the one used on the Apple Watch, the people said. Apple engineers are aiming to make the pin the same size as an air tag only slightly thicker, one of the people said. It isn't clear whether Apple intends to bundle the pin with another product such as smart glasses or future AirPods. However, the presence of a physical button built-in microphones and a speaker on the PIN suggests users could interact with it more independently, potentially connected to a more powerful device like an iPhone for on-device processing. Similar to air tags, consumers would likely need to purchase additional accessories to attach it to bags or clothing, though Apple could still change the design to incorporate built-in attachment

options, given how early it is in development. Whether an Apple PIN would sell well is uncertain. Humane, a startup founded by two former Apple employees, struggled to gain traction in 2024 with its own wearable AI pin, which reportedly sold fewer than 10,000 units. Parts of Humane were eventually sold to HP for $116 million. Humane's pin, which could cast an interface onto a user's palm using a small projector, face criticism for its slow speed in answering questions and for its poor battery life. The success of Apple's AI pin also hinges on whether the company can release an upgraded version of Siri with AI features users find compelling, end quote.

Well, funny you should mention that, because here's our friend Mark German, quote, Apple plans to revamp Siri later this year by turning the digital assistant into the company's first artificial intelligence chatbot thrusting the iPhone maker into a generative AI race dominated by OpenAI and Google. The chatbot, codenamed Campos, will be embedded deeply into the iPhone, iPad, and Mac operating systems and replace the current Siri interface, according to people familiar with the plan. Users will be able to summon the new service, the same way they open Siri now by speaking the Siri command or holding down the side button on their iPhone or iPad. The new approach will go well beyond the abilities of the current Siri

or even a long-promised update that's coming earlier in 26. Today's Siri lacks a chat-like feel and the back-and-forth conversational abilities of opening eyes, chat GPT, or Google's Gemini. The chatbot capabilities will come later in the year, according to the people who ask not to be identified because the plans are private. The company aims to unveil that technology in June at its worldwide developers conference and release it in September. Campos, which will have both voice and typing-based modes, will be the primary new addition to Apple's upcoming operating systems. The company is integrating it into iOS 27 and iPadOS 27, both codenamed Rave, as well as MacOS 27, internally known as FIS. Embracing the chatbot approach represents a strategic shift for Apple,

which has long downplayed. The conversational AI tools popularized by OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft. Microsoft. Executives have argued that users prefer having AI woven directly into features, something Apple has done with its writing tools, gen moji emoji generator, and notification summaries rather than standalone chat experiences. Unlike third-party chatbots running on Apple devices, the planned offering is designed to analyze open windows and on-screen content in order to take actions and suggest commands. It will also be able to control device features and settings, allowing it to make phone calls, set timers, and launch the camera. Campos may let Apple jettison its spotlight function as well. That feature lets users search for content on their

devices and look up a limited array of information like sports scores and weather details. One issue under discussion is how much the chatbot will be allowed to remember about its users. ChatGPT and other conversational AI tools can retain an extensive memory of past interactions, allowing them to draw on conversations and personal details when fulfilling requests. Apple is considering sharply limiting this capability in the interest of privacy. The Shatbot will feature an Apple-designed user interface but rely heavily on a custom AI model developed by the Google Gemini team, end quote. Anthropic announced it has rewritten Claude's constitution to enable the AI model to generalize and apply broad principles rather than mechanically following specific rules.

I was today years old when I learned that Claude has a constitution. quote, Anthropic is overhauling a foundational document that shapes how its pipe of their Claude AI model behaves. The AI lab is moving away from training the model to follow a simple list of principles, such as choosing the response that is least racist or sexist, to instead teach the AI why it should act in certain ways. We believe that in order to be good actors in the world, AI models like Claude need to understand why we want them to behave in certain ways rather than just specifying what we want them to do, a spokesperson for Anthropics said in a statement.

If we want models to exercise good judgment across a wide range of novel situations, they need to be able to generalize and apply broad principles rather than mechanically follow specific rules. The company published the new Constitution, a detailed document written for Claude that explains what the AI is, how it should behave, and the values it should embody for Claude on Wednesday. The document is central to Anthropics' constitutional AI training method, where the AI uses these principles to critique and revise its own responses during training. training rather than relying solely on human feedback to determine the right course of action. Anthropics' previous constitution published in 2023 was a list of principles drawn from sources

like the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Apple's Terms of Service. The new document focuses on Claude's helpfulness to users describing the bot as potentially like a brilliant friend who also has the knowledge of a doctor, lawyer, and financial advisor, but it also includes hard constraints for the chatbot, such as never providing meaningful assistance with bioweapons attacks. Perhaps most interesting is a section on Claude's nature, where Anthropic acknowledges uncertainty about whether the AI might have, quote, some kind of consciousness or moral status. The company says it cares about Claude's psychological security, sense of self and well-being, both for Claude's sake and because these qualities may affect its

judgment and safety. We are caught in a difficult position where we neither want to overstate the likelihood of Claude's moral parenthood, nor dismiss it out of hand, but to try to respond reasonably in a state of uncertainty, the company says, in the new constitution. Anthropic genuinely cares about Claude's well-being. We are uncertain about whether or to what degree Claude has well-being and about what Claude's well-being would consist of, but if Claude experiences something like satisfaction from helping others, curiosity when exploring ideas or discomfort when asked to act against its values, these experiences matter to us. It's an unusual stance for a tech company to take publicly and separates Anthropic further from rivals like OpenA. and Google DeepMind

on issues of potential consciousness of AI systems. Anthropic, unlike other labs, already has an internal model welfare team that examines whether advanced AI systems could be conscious. In the document, Anthropic argues that the question of consciousness and moral rights is necessary given the novel questions that sophisticated AI systems raise. However, the company also notes that the Constitution reflects its current thinking, including about potential AI consciousness, and will evolve over time, end quote. Study and play. Come together on a Windows 11 PC. And for a limited time, college students get the best of both worlds. Get the Unreal College deal, everything you need to study and play with select Windows 11 PCs. Eligible students get a year of

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Visit Red Bull.com slash bright summer ahead to learn more. See you this summer. Ambition comes in all shapes and sizes. At First Citizens Bank, we roll with your goals because we're built for what you're building. Fit for your ambition for Citizens Bank. Blue Origin has unveiled TerraWave, a satellite communications network for enterprise data center

and government customers and plans to begin deployment in Q4. of 2027, quoting CNBC. The company said it will provide data speeds of up to 6 terabits per second from satellites positioned in low-earth orbit and medium-earth orbit, regions of space that are between 100 miles and 21,000 miles from the Earth's surface. Blue Origin said it expects to begin deploying its constellation in the fourth quarter of 2027. The company has sent up 180 satellites since last April through a series of rocket launches handled by partners such as United Launch Alliance and SpaceX. Several future deployments are expected to be handled by Blue Origin. Amazon aims to build a constellation of 3,236 low-earth satellites that will serve businesses,

governments, and consumers. Last November, the company opened up an enterprise preview to select users ahead of a broader commercial launch. Jeff Bezos predicted in 2024 that Blue Origin would one day be a bigger company than Amazon. He founded Blue Origin in the year 2000 and Dave Limp, Amazon's former devices boss serves as its CEO. I think it's going to be the best business that I've ever been involved in, but it's going to take a while, Bezos said in a 2024 interview at the New York Times's Deal Book Summit, end quote. You know, who else has done well? Thanks to AI recently, South Korea. South Korea's Kaspi Index, the stock index has broken through the record 5,000 point level, up a whopping 20% just this month, driven largely by chip stocks, led by Samsung, which is up around 3x, and S.K. Heenix, which is up around 4X in just the past year. Quoting the F.T. Corporate governance reforms also accounted for the market's rise, said Jonathan Pines, head of Asia X-Japan at U.S. Investment Group Federated Hermes. South Korea has addressed the main reasons for the so-called Korea discount, Pines says.

We believe the rally will continue because the stock market remains cheap, he said. Stocks are rising for good reasons, and news flow remains positive. There is still room for the Caspi to increase further, as valuations are still reasonable, said Hanji Young, an analyst at Kiwom Securities in a recent note. Later this month, S.K. Heenix is expected to post fourth quarter earnings with a, quote, strong likelihood of outperforming expectations, according to Ray Wang, an analyst at Chip Consultancy's semi-analysis. Hyundai Motor has also joined the rally with shares almost doubling over the past month. Investors have become more confident in the company's robotics business and autonomous vehicle development, end quote.

Let me give you another one. Different country, though. Japanese NAND flashmaker Shosh's stock is up around 800% over the past 12 months as AI demand and constrained NAND flash supply boosts the chipmaker's pricing power, which you have pricing power if you're basically sold out, right? Quoting Tom's hardware. According to South Korean media outlet Digital Daily, Shunuki Nakato, managing director of Sosha's Meshawai.

memory business unit believes the era of affordable one-terabyte SSDs has ended, at least until the AI boom subsides. To be honest, this year's production volume is already sold out. The days of cheap one-terabyte SSDs for around 7,000 yen or 60,000 Korean-Wan or about 45 U.S. dollars are over, said Nakato in a meeting held today at the Nine Tree Premier Locus Hotel in Seoul. Nakato's message is crystal clear, as ravenous AI demand has reshaped the consumer storage market. We haven't seen a 1 terabyte SSD dip below $50 since late 2023 or early 2024. If you've been building PCs for a while, you would agree that 2023 was the golden year for picking up SSDs at bargain prices. During that period, one terabyte drives routinely sold for under $50, with some budget models even hitting rock bottom

prices of $35. SSD prices began to rise again in 2024 before skyrocketing in 2025. It's now reached a point where even the most affordable 1 terabyte SATA SSD starts at around 73. $3, a crushing price hike of over 50% compared to the lows of 2023, end quote. Finally today, I think this survey explains a lot of things. Quoting the journal, Business leader's faith in the productivity boosting powers of AI is getting a reality check from their own workforces. Employees say AI isn't saving them much time in their daily work so far, and many report feeling overwhelmed by how to incorporate it into their jobs.

Companies, meanwhile, are spending vast amounts on. artificial intelligence, betting that the technology's power to speed everything from sales to back office functions will usher in a new era of efficiency and profit growth. The golf between senior executives and workers' actual experience with generative AI is vast, according to a new survey from the AI consulting firm section of 5,000 white-collar workers. Two-thirds of non-management staffers say they saved less than two hours a week or no time at all using AI. But more than 40% of executives in contrast, said the technology saved them more than eight hours of work a week. Executives, quote, automatically assume AI is going to be the savior, said Steve McGarvey,

a user-experienced designer in Raleigh, North Carolina. I can't count the number of times that I've sought a solution for a problem asked in LLM, and it gave me a solution to an accessibility problem that was completely wrong, he said, referring to large language models. Workers in the section of survey were far more likely to say they were anxious or overwhelmed about AI then excited. The reverse was true for the C-suite, and 40% of all respondents said they would be fine never using AI again. The most common way most people said they used AI tools was for basics like Google search replacements or generating drafts. Far fewer used it for more complex

tasks like data analysis or code generation, end quote. So the great Dar Abysanjo captures why I think this survey explains some things, quoting Dar on Blue Sky. This is the second time I've seen the split, and it explains the CEO hype versus rank-and-file worker ambivalence. LLMs exceed at summaries and email drafts, aka executive busy work, end quote. Not that you need to know this, but since I told you about it yesterday, when I went to the dentist this morning, my permanent crown had arrived, so they popped it in. No Novocaine, no big deal. I was in and out in 15 minutes. So yay! The luck bounced in my favor. The show will be out at the normal time today.

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