# Why is the most expensive thing you own the dumbest?

> Source: <https://asymco.com/2026/06/27/why-is-the-most-expensive-thing-you-own-the-dumbest/>
> Published: 2026-06-27 13:29:33+00:00

*An Office Hours question asked by Lalit, June 9, 2026.*

**Q: Could some future Apple TV morph into a data center for the family? And what about all the talk about Home and AI?**

I’ve anticipated the Home story for years, and maybe this is the year. Home needed a big upgrade in intelligence, because today it’s constrained by configuration. Anyone who’s set up a smart home feels like they have to be a programmer — set up events, triggers, scenes — and then it doesn’t work. I don’t want to tell it every single thing to do. I need it to be aware of my needs. The missing ingredient was always inference.

Where it gets interesting is the rumor of a new device type — think of a HomePod with a screen, a display that follows you and creates eye contact, something more anthropomorphic, more like the Pixar lamp. Right now Apple TV is the hub by convenience: it has a display, enough horsepower to act as a gateway, and the security to do the integration. The question is whether it stays the hub, or whether a new home hub arrives, or the two split the job.

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Here’s my worry. With AI, the hardware will get obsoleted faster, so you’d need to upgrade more often — but the Apple TV withers, because it’s tied to the TV, and a TV is an appliance, like a refrigerator which you replace only when it breaks. I still have a TV from 2008. Nobody rushes out for a new Apple TV because it’s cool. So whatever they build has to have a reason to be a software object that evolves, not a static box.

Step back and the real problem is this: the most expensive thing you own is a house, possibly three million dollars, and it’s the least intelligent thing you own. We put more intelligence in a $300 wristwatch than in our homes. Cars are the second-worst offender — stupid by every metric, and they resist software, partly because many people don’t want them to be smart. Home and health are the great holdouts, unpenetrated by software for decades, and AI is the chance to take another run at them. And by the way, the dream of humanoid robots in the home baffles me. People don’t want a robot that freaks them out and does the job worse. We like approachable, single-purpose appliances. A little speaker with a screen that turns to greet you beats a faceless robot every time.

*Editor’s Note: This was one of the questions asked by participants in Asymco’s June 2026 Office Hours live Q&A session, open to Asymco One subscribers.*

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