In partnership with
Welcome to OHMO AI. OpenAI is reportedly building a speaker that can see your room and move on its own. Spotify wants you chatting with your playlists. And the money is flowing somewhere unexpected: cheap Chinese models that American startups say are good enough. Good enough is the new frontier.
In today’s newsletter:
OpenAI’s first hardware device leaks, a screenless AI speaker that watches and moves
US startups are switching to Chinese AI models to cut their biggest bill
Spotify launches Talk to Spotify, an AI chatbot for your music, podcasts, and audiobooks
Anthropic gives US teachers free premium Claude with curricula for all 50 states
LATEST IN AI
OPENAI
OpenAI’s First Device Is a Speaker That Moves
Image source: OHMO AI
OHMO AI: OpenAI’s first hardware product will reportedly be a portable, screenless smart speaker, according to a Bloomberg report covered by TechCrunch. The device is described as having a camera, environmental sensors, and mechanical elements that can move on their own, designed to feel like a companion rather than a gadget. It’s expected to launch in 2027.
The details:
The speaker reportedly runs an advanced version of ChatGPT’s voice mode and includes a rechargeable battery, so it can follow you from room to room instead of staying plugged into one spot.
It’s one of roughly five hardware products OpenAI has in development with Jony Ive, the former Apple design chief whose startup io Products OpenAI acquired last year for about $6.5 billion.
The report landed days after Apple sued OpenAI, alleging trade secret theft tied to its hardware work. OpenAI says it’s “not aware of any evidence that this complaint has merit.”
Why it matters: OpenAI built its empire on software you talk to. Now it wants a physical object in your home that listens, watches, and moves. Amazon and Google have owned that space for a decade with devices that mostly set timers. If a frontier model in a box actually works, the smart speaker stops being a kitchen accessory and becomes the way millions of people meet AI.
TOGETHER WITH HIGHTOUCH
Swap out your stale ads
Not all ads are created equal. And the old, low-performing ones? Those have got to go.
Hightouch can help you refresh your fatiguing ads in just one click. They show you insights on your ad performance so that you can spot the low performers, swap ’em out, and focus your energy on scaling up your high-performing ads.
You can do it all in the Hightouch Ad Studio. Ad Studio’s got the context of your ad performance built right into it to help you:
generate new variations of your ads instantly
launch your new ads as soon as you’re ready
keep your campaigns consistently high-performing
Turn your tired old ads into potentially high-performing, fresh creative with just a click.
US STARTUPS
American Startups Defect to Chinese AI
Image source: OHMO AI
OHMO AI: A growing number of US companies are cutting their fastest-growing expense by switching to cheaper Chinese AI models, NPR reports. San Francisco startup Lindy.ai moved 100% of its traffic to DeepSeek-V4 after CEO Flo Crivello realized Anthropic was his single biggest cost. “By far, our No. 1 expense was Anthropic,” he said. “Like, more than payroll.”
The details:
Crivello says the switch was “just 10x cheaper” and saved the company millions. He adds that every AI founder he knows is either thinking about switching to Chinese models or already has.
Experts say Chinese models run six to 12 months behind US frontier models, but they dominate open source. One CEO compared it to driving a Honda instead of a Ferrari: less luxury, works at scale.
OpenRouter, a platform for accessing AI models, reports DeepSeek’s usage share has gone from around 9% to nearly 20% since January. Many US firms run the Chinese models through American hosting companies so user data stays in the US.
Why it matters: The AI race was supposed to be about who builds the smartest model. It’s turning into a fight over who can run one without going broke. When your AI bill beats your payroll, patriotism loses to price. Both Anthropic and OpenAI have filed confidential IPO paperwork, and their paying customers are openly shopping around.
SPOTIFY
Talk to Spotify Is Here
Image source: OHMO AI
OHMO AI: Spotify launched Talk to Spotify, an in-app AI chatbot that’s rolling out in beta for Premium users aged 18 and over in the US, Ireland, and Sweden. You can type or speak to the app from the Home and Now Playing views and have a back-and-forth conversation about your music, podcasts, and audiobooks.
The details:
You can refine requests in real time: ask for artists you haven’t heard before, then narrow it to newer material or shift the mood, then save the song or follow the artist, all in conversation.
It knows your listening history, so it can answer questions like when you first played a song or what genres you’ve been into lately, without waiting for Wrapped.
Spotify says the feature blends its own AI models with third-party ones, picking whichever fits the task. It’s English only and mobile only for now.
Why it matters: Spotify’s recommendation engine has always been its quiet superpower, but you interacted with it through menus and search bars. Now the interface is a conversation. If people get used to talking to their music app, typing keywords into a search box starts to feel old fast.
PRESENTED BY OYSTER
What is an EOR—and why are companies using it?
Opening entities in every country can be slow, expensive, and hard to scale.
That's why more companies are using EOR to hire globally faster.
See how Oyster helps teams hire, pay, and support talent in 180+ countries while staying compliant along the way.
ANTHROPIC
Anthropic Hands Teachers Free Claude
Image source: OHMO AI
OHMO AI: Anthropic launched Claude for Teachers, giving verified K-12 educators in the US free access to premium Claude, a library of teaching skills, and a direct connection to evidence-based curricula mapped to academic standards in all 50 states. Educators who sign up by June 30, 2027 get a full year free.
The details:
Claude connects to Learning Commons, which maps academic standards in every state down to the smaller competencies beneath them, so lesson plans come out scaffolded and standards-aligned.
It launches with nine education connectors including MagicSchool, Canva Education, and TeachFX, plus Claude Code and Cowork, so teachers can hand off repeated tasks like reviewing each day’s exit tickets.
Anthropic worked with the American Federation of Teachers on privacy standards. Teacher data isn’t used for model training, and student information is covered by a data agreement written to comply with FERPA.
Why it matters: AFT President Randi Weingarten is framing this as a gold standard for classroom AI, and Anthropic is piloting it in Detroit public schools to measure the effect on actual teachers. The AI giants have decided the classroom is the next battleground. Whoever wins the teachers wins the next generation of users.
AI TOOLS
Useful AI Tools
Base44: No-code AI app builder that turns your words into fully functional apps in minutes.*
Chatbase: Build and deploy custom AI support agents for your business, no coding needed.*
ElevenLabs: Generate realistic, studio-quality voiceovers from text in any language or voice.*
Flora: Node-based creative canvas built for professional designers, agencies, and creative teams.*
Kick: Automates bookkeeping and tax preparation for business owners using AI.*
Magica: All-in-one AI platform with 5000+ tools for text, images, videos, audio, and lots more.*
WisprFlow: Voice-to-text AI that turns your speech into polished writing, so you can just talk instead of type.*
*Sponsored Listing
COMMUNITY
Featured Reader
Every newsletter, we feature how a reader is using AI to work smarter, save time, or make life easier.
Today’s reader is Renata S. from Porto, Portugal:
“I run a four-room guesthouse with my husband and the bookings come from everywhere. Booking.com, Airbnb, email, WhatsApp, sometimes a phone call from a travel agent in Germany. Double bookings were my nightmare, we had one last summer and I still think about it. I sat down with Claude and described how we work, and over a few evenings it helped me build a little system that pulls everything into one calendar and drafts my replies to guests in English, French, and German. My German is terrible so that alone is worth it. My husband says I talk about the robot like it’s staff. He’s not wrong.”
Want to be in the next newsletter? Tell us how you use AI here.
AI Meme
Go Deeper
AI Tools: A curated list of the AI tools worth knowing.
Instagram: The AI page they pray you’ll never find.
Facebook: For the ones who never left Facebook.
