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LEGO Unveils Smart Brick Platform At CES 2026
The toy giant is embedding sensors and wireless tech directly into a classic 2×4 brick, starting with app-free Star Wars sets launching in March.
LEGO is pushing deeper into connected play, revealing a sensor-packed “Smart Brick” at CES 2026 that bakes intelligence into a standard 2×4 form factor.
The new brick anchors SMART Play, a platform from LEGO that lets physical builds respond to movement, orientation and context without phones, apps or internet access. The system combines the Smart Brick with Smart Tags and Smart Minifigures, all designed to recognize one another and exchange data locally.
Inside the brick is a custom 4.1mm ASIC chip running what LEGO calls its Play Engine. The hardware stack includes an accelerometer, LED array, speaker and copper coils that detect motion, direction and the proximity of other Smart Bricks. Audio is generated dynamically during play, rather than triggered from fixed sound clips.
Smart Tags — thin 2×2 tiles with embedded digital IDs — and Smart Minifigures provide context. They tell the brick what role it is meant to play inside a build, whether that’s a vehicle, character or structure. “The role of the Smart Tag is to tell the Smart Brick how it should play back with you,” LEGO said.
To tie the system together, LEGO has built a local wireless layer called BrickNet, based on Bluetooth and a proprietary positioning method it calls Neighbor Position Measurement. The goal is for Smart components to communicate directly, with no external controller and no setup. LEGO is positioning the experience as closer to traditional play than to app-driven toys.
Power comes from long-life internal batteries designed to survive years of inactivity. Charging is wireless, with shared pads capable of topping up multiple bricks at once.
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The company is launching SMART Play through its largest licensed franchise, Star Wars. Three initial sets skew smaller and younger than LEGO’s recent adult-focused releases. Pricing runs from $70 for a 473-piece Darth Vader TIE Fighter to $160 for a 962-piece Throne Room Duel & A-wing set.
Pre-orders open January 9, with shelves set for March 1. The debut at CES 2026 lands as toy makers experiment with embedding intelligence directly into physical products — while LEGO makes a clear bet that play should stay off-screen.
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OpenAI’s ChatGPT Health Is A Private Space For Health Data
A new health mode lets the popular AI platform tap medical records and fitness apps while walling off sensitive information.
OpenAI has created ChatGPT Health, a separate space inside its chatbot platform for handling medical and wellness data. The opt-in feature starts with a small US cohort before widening out.
Health-related questions have long driven traffic to AI tools. OpenAI says over 230 million people ask ChatGPT about health or insurance each week. The new mode adds personal context to that behavior but stops short of diagnosis or treatment advice.
Users can connect records from participating US providers through b.well and link apps such as Apple Health, MyFitnessPal, Function and Weight Watchers. Some links are US-only, while Apple Health needs iOS. Once connected, ChatGPT can surface patterns in labs, summarize information ahead of a clinic visit or help map diet and exercise choices against past data.
The data sits apart from other chat information. Health has its own memories and does not spill into other conversations. Users can view or delete health memories at any time. OpenAI says this material is not used to train its models.
Security is much heavier in this section too. Health adds isolation and purpose-built encryption on top of the platform’s baseline protections. App connections require explicit permission, and disconnecting cuts the feed immediately.
“ChatGPT Health is another step toward turning ChatGPT into a personal super-assistant that can support you with information and tools to achieve your goals across any part of your life,” wrote Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s applications chief.
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Physicians had input during development, though OpenAI has not detailed how that shaped the end product. The launch follows Health Bench, a dataset released in May to test models on realistic medical cases.
While currently rooted in the US healthcare ecosystem, the approach may draw interest in the Gulf and wider MENA markets as governments push digital health records and patient portals under modernization programs. Adoption will depend on whether users trust an AI assistant with such personal material and whether it fits clinical routines.
For OpenAI, the move marks a cautious step into regulated terrain and signals a shift toward sector-specific uses of generative AI.
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