Welcome back to our weekly roundup of happenings from XR and AI realms. Let’s dive in…
The Lede
Snap is spinning out its Specs AR glasses business into a standalone entity, separating hardware development from its core social media operations. The company says this will make it easier for it to bring in outside investors, but I’m skeptical. It could also be a way for Snap to get its AR glasses off its books before it does even more damage to its struggling stock. After its launch to developers last year at $99/month, Spectacles will soon be offered to the public. They were nowhere to be seen at CES earlier this month. With little marketing and now this spin-off, Snap may be signalling a new approach. They need more money and big partners to go up against Google’s new Android XR devices, Meta’s Ray-Ban and Oakley AI smartglasses, and coming wearable AI devices from OpenAI and Apple.
Feeling Spatial
Google has launched Project Genie, an experimental AI prototype that lets users generate and explore interactive 3D worlds from text prompts or photos. Powered by the company’s Genie 3 world model, the tool is currently available to Google AI Ultra subscribers in the United States and produces environments users can navigate in real time for short sessions. Users can remix, customize, and traverse these generated worlds through a browser interface, with the system dynamically creating new paths and environments as they interact. Project Genie represents a shift from static generative content toward dynamic, explorable AI-created environments.
Walkabout Mini Golf developer Mighty Coconut cut roughly a quarter of its staff earlier this month, despite operating one of the most consistently successful titles on Quest. The studio also raised prices on new downloaded content courses, citing rising costs and platform pressures. If WMG, one of the most popular Quest titles, is cutting back, Meta’s VR efforts may be in worse shape than even its ugly closure of its owned studios suggests. French immersive studio Atlas V raised $6 million to diversify away from narrative VR toward free-to-play gaming and location-based experiences. The studio has been responsible for some of the most popular and critically acclaimed titles in the Meta Quest store, including Spheres, Battlescar, Gloomy Eyes, Madrid Noir, and Wallace and Gromit. Atlas V executives were explicit that premium narrative VR has failed to reach sufficient audience scale. The company plans to focus on experiences with clearer revenue models, including ticketed VR attractions and live installations.
Hardware is Hard
Apple is developing an AI wearable, a small pin-sized device roughly comparable to an AirTag, according to reporting from MacRumors and The Verge. The device is described as a circular aluminum and glass disc with microphones, cameras, a speaker, and a physical button, designed to work with a future LLM-powered version of Siri. It would rely on wireless charging and offload compute to other Apple devices and the cloud. Internally, the project is still considered experimental, with no guarantee of release, though sources point to a possible 2027 launch window. Apple’s AI pin effort lands after a series of failed or underwhelming AI-first hardware launches from startups, including Humane and Rabbit, and appears deliberately conservative by comparison. Rather than positioning the device as a phone replacement, Apple is framing it as an ambient companion, tightly integrated into its existing ecosystem of iPhone, Watch, and Vision Pro. The approach is consistent with Apple’s traditional strategy of waiting for categories to break before entering them with vertically integrated hardware like the iPod and iPhone.
OpenAI is preparing its own consumer AI hardware debut, expected later this year, following the acquisition of former Apple design leader Jony Ive’s company for $6 billion. While details remain scarce, the effort is widely understood as an attempt to establish a new category of AI native devices built around conversation and perception rather than apps and screens. The convergence of Apple, OpenAI, and Google around AI hardware suggests that 2026 may mark the start of a new device cycle centered on continuous AI presence.
Dealings & Doings
Amazon announced another round of layoffs as part of what CEO Andy Jassy described as an ongoing cultural reset. Tens of thousands of roles have been eliminated over the past two years as the company restructures around cloud infrastructure, AI services, and operational efficiency. Many of these jobs were white collar developer roles. Earlier this week, Amazon also announced it would shutter its Amazon Go and Fresh stores, citing its failure to create a “truly distinctive customer experience with the right economic model.”
Spatial Audio
For more spatial commentary & insights, check out the AI/XR Podcast, hosted by the author of this column, Charlie Fink, and Ted Schilowitz, former studio executive and futurist for Paramount and Fox, and Rony Abovitz, founder of Magic Leap. This week, our guest is Ed Saatchi of Showrunner AI studio. You can find it on podcasting platforms Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube.
Charlie Fink is an author and futurist focused on spatial computing. See his books here. Spatial Beats contains insights and inputs from Fink’s collaborators including Paramount Pictures futurist Ted Shilowitz.