Meta opens Muse Gadgets to DIY AI hardware builders

Meta's move stands out because the AI hardware field is still unsettled. Apple and OpenAI are both working on their own devices, and Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses are arguably the most successful AI gadget on the market so far, yet no single form factor has become the default.

By releasing Muse Gadgets under an Apache 2.0 license and inviting a Discord community to tinker, Meta appears to be hedging its bets. The open-source approach likely serves a second purpose: watching what the community builds could reveal which shapes and functions people actually want, information that is hard to get from internal prototypes alone. Meanwhile, the Muse Home Link offers a concrete, ready-made option for subscribers, connecting Muse to TVs, speakers, and anything else with an HTTPS interface.

What happens next may hinge on how quickly the 5,000 units ship and whether the open-source community produces designs that point to a breakout form factor. For Meta, the payoff would be learning faster than rivals what AI hardware should look like — though that depends on whether hobbyists embrace the tools and whether the free gadget offer converts into sustained use.