Meta’s Smart Glasses Might Make You Smarter. They’ll Certainly Make You More Awkward
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg claims anyone not wearing smart glasses will be at a “cognitive disadvantage” in the future. On an earnings call this summer, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made an ambitious claim about the future of smart glasses, saying he believes that someday people who don’t wear AI-enabled smart spectacles (ideally his) will find themselves at a “pretty significant cognitive disadvantage” compared to their smart-glasses-clad kin. However, as Zuckerberg noted, you'll have to pay a hefty social price for those added smarts.
Technical Failures and the Reality of Live Demos
In a live keynote address at the company’s Connect developer conference on Wednesday, Zuckerberg tossed to a product demo of the new smart glasses he had just announced, but that demo immediately went awry. When a chef was brought onstage to ask the Meta glasses’ voice assistant to walk him through a recipe, he spoke the “Hey Meta” wake word, and every pair of Meta glasses in the room—hundreds, since the glasses had just been distributed to the crowd of attendees—sprang to life and started chattering. In an Instagram Reel posted after the event, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth (whose own bit onstage had run into technical problems) said the hiccup happened because so many instances of Meta's AI running in the same place meant they had inadvertently DDOS’d themselves.
Furthermore, a video call demo failed too, and the demos that did work were filled with lags and interruptions. These timid exchanges and wooden conversations inadvertently reflect just how graceless this technology can be when used in the real world. “The failure risk just is high, and the gap is still pretty big between what's being shown and what we're actually going to get,” says Leo Gebbie, a director and analyst at CCS Insights.
Design Evolution: Gen 2 Ray-Ban Meta vs. Meta Ray-Ban Display
Meta’s spectacles are the best smart glasses you’re going to be able to buy right now. The partnership with Ray-Ban and Oakley owner EssilorLuxottica has done well for its product visuals. Notably, the new Gen 2 Ray-Ban Meta models look very much like normal glasses and are much more fashionable than earlier attempts—like the famously dorky Google Glass. But once you start adding more of those cognition-enhancing capabilities, you start packing on the pounds. For example, look at the sheer heft of the Meta Ray-Ban Displays: you can watch Instagram Reels on them, but they’re big, chunky, and dorky looking.
Comparison of Meta’s Smart Glasses Features
- Gen 2 Ray-Ban Meta: Much more fashionable than earlier attempts; these models look very much like normal glasses.
- Meta Ray-Ban Display: Capability to watch Instagram Reels; however, the design is big, chunky, and dorky looking.
- Visual Interface: The screen was definitely visible, though it was slightly blurry and took a moment to focus on.
Social Disadvantages and Visual Distractions
Smart glasses put the wearer at a significant social disadvantage. Even if you pull off the look, the process of using them in the wild is bound to be uncanny. Trying to read something or pick out an icon meant staring down and to the right at the lens, looking all but downright cross-eyed to anyone who might be on the other side of me. Additionally, the design also puts diversions directly into your field of vision.
As Leo Gebbie notes, “I cannot see how, for me as a wearer, it would not be invasive if I was speaking to someone one-on-one and suddenly I get a notification pop-up saying someone's messaged me on WhatsApp. That is so distracting.” Tanner Higgin, a senior researcher, describes a striking physical change that happens when watching someone use them: “Their attention shifts to the display. There's a kind of vacancy.” Clearly, we are a long way from Zuckerberg’s vision of smart glasses being the computing platform that elevates humanity to some higher-thinking, higher-functioning state.