TRO | OpenAI’s secret new device could be an ‘AI-powered pen’.

Plus, LEGO, Samsung and NVIDIA set to announce at CES, China develops new AI guidelines, and the YouTube Playables beta is here.

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Meliora Company
January 05, 2026 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

Subscribe | 5th January, 2026

In this fast-moving GenAI economy, headlines are everywhere but optimism is rare.

Here’s our take on 3 stories that will help you be relentlessly optimistic about the future.

1. OpenAI’s secret device could be an ‘AI-powered pen’.

According to leaked supply chain details, Open AI is working on an ‘AI-powered pen’ called ‘Gumdrop’ in collaboration with former Apple design head Jony Ive. The device is expected to transcribe written notes directly to ChatGPT and enable voice communication.

Here’s why this matters: This will be OpenAI’s first foray into consumer hardware, and ever since it was announced that Ive’s hardware company would be acquired by OpenAI, questions have circulated around what and how an AI native device could look like. Perhaps we’re going to find out soon enough.

This also explains, in part, why OpenAI is betting big on Audio AI – in a move where the future of technology is expected to be audio-first, OpenAI has focused several of its engineering, product and research teams on overhauling its audio models in preparation for an audio-first personal device.

2. Samsung, LEGO, NVIDIA, AMD, Intel and LG all on show at CES 2026.

This year’s Consumer Electronics Show has kicked off in Las Vegas, and already we’re seeing some sneak peeks of the technology that will shape what 2026 looks like - including Samsung’s ‘Companion to AI Living’ first look, LG’s CLOiD home robot with a ‘zero-labour home’ vision, and Belkin’s new wireless HDMI display adapter that connects to screens up to 39 metres away- without the need for wifi.

Here’s why this matters: The CES is the biggest annual technology conference in the world, and first real indicator of what the tech landscape could look like for the coming year - and this year we’re expecting some big and exciting announcements thanks to the emergence of both Generative and Agentic AI. For example- this will be the first year that LEGO presents at the CES- and speculation is rife around the integration of smart bricks across LEGO’s product lines - laying a new foundation for the next era of interactive play. We’ll also see conferences from NVIDIA, Intel, Sony and AMD. There’s a great live update running here, if you want to keep up with the latest.

3. YouTube Playables allows creators to vibe code games.

In the next iteration of vibe-coding, YouTube has launched a closed beta test for it’s new ‘playables’ builder, which will allow creators to make and publish bite sized playable games using Gemini 3, using short text, image and video prompts.

Here’s why this matters: For years, YouTube optimized for watching, then it optiised for posting. Now it’s experimenting with making. AI is lowering the skill barrier so creators can generate simple interactive games without studios and specialist development teams. This is great example of UGC evolving from video to interaction – and Gen AI makes this process fast and cheap enough to test at scale- which is why this is happening inside YouTube and not in niche gaming platforms.

Still Curious?

Our Pursuit Of Better

After announcing that its annual revenue run rate had surpassed US$125m and it had reached $100m in ARR, Asian Agentic AI scale up Manus has been acquired by Meta for more than US$2b. Pretty good for a platform that only launched 8 months ago!

Resolve AI, a startup developing an autonomous site reliability engineer (SRE), has raised a Series A that values the company at around US$1b. While human SREs are traditionally responsible for manually troubleshooting and resolving system failures, Resolve AI automates this process by autonomously identifying, diagnosing, and resolving production issues in real time, allowing organisations to build a truly automated backbone.

Chinese artificial intelligence unicorn Moonshot AI has raised US$500m in its recent Series C funding round. Moonshot AI, developer of the highly lauded Kimi AI models, now has a valuation to US$4.3 billion.

Our Top 3 AI predictions for 2026

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

In case you missed it, we’ve landed on our top 3 AI predictions for this year. From innovation to governance and attention, here’s what the Meliora team believe is on the cards for 2026.

Meliora Associate Spotlight

Stuart Wettenhall - Australia

Stuart specialises in digital venture build, platform economics and new market entry following senior roles at Amazon and BBC Studios. He's led regional growth for AI video start-ups, been on the founding team of a $3bn content studio and advised some of the world's largest sports rightsholders on digital transformation. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PwC and is an early stage SaaS investor.

Murray Barnett - UK

Murray is a seasoned executive with deep expertise in monetising and maximising sports media and commercial rights across global markets. As Founder of 26West Sport, he lead a specialised consultancy transforming how sports properties package, value, and monetise their media, sponsorship and commercial rights.

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