Meta is continuing to expand its artificial intelligence push and smart-glasses business as the company faces growing concerns over privacy. The technology giant has invested billions of dollars to remain competitive in AI, while CEO Mark Zuckerberg is preparing to announce new products built for the AI era at the company’s annual Connect conference.
Meta will begin its annual Connect conference from its Menlo Park headquarters at 4:00 pm PT (2300 GMT) on Wednesday. Zuckerberg is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the developer-focused event, where the company is expected to highlight its latest developments in AI and smart glasses.
Earlier this month, Meta launched Muse, its first agentic application for consumers. The app is designed to perform tasks on behalf of users and functions as a digital personal assistant.
Users can connect different personal accounts to Muse, including financial, health-related and shopping accounts. They can then ask the Meta AI agent to perform tasks such as signing up for services, booking appointments and making calls.
However, Meta’s AI agent has already faced restrictions from some businesses. Amazon blocked Meta this week from allowing AI bots to automatically shop for users. At the same time, companies including Instacart, Shopify and Expedia have announced partnerships to integrate their services with Muse.
The Muse agent is powered by Meta’s own AI models and is designed to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude.
Meta’s AI strategy also extends to wearable technology. The company introduced its first pair of interactive smart glasses in 2021, around a year before OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT triggered a global surge in interest in artificial intelligence. Since then, Meta’s smart-glasses technology has continued to develop.
Last year, Meta introduced augmented reality display glasses capable of projecting images onto the lenses. Earlier this year, the company also released self-branded AI glasses, in addition to its partnership with eyewear manufacturer EssilorLuxottica, which produces several Ray-Ban-branded Meta glasses.
The growing capabilities of these devices have also brought privacy concerns. Critics have raised questions about the use of cameras and recording features in smart glasses, with some referring to the devices as “pervert glasses.”
At last year’s Connect event, Meta Chief Product Officer Chris Cox dismissed some of these concerns and told news outlets, including AFP, that “social norms” would develop around the use of smart glasses.
Meta has since said that a recording indicator light on its smart glasses will remain visible to people nearby. The company has also said that tampering with the indicator light will disable the camera.
The company is reportedly working on a new pair of audio-only glasses and has also been rumoured to be developing another generation of mixed reality glasses.
Alongside concerns related to smart glasses, Meta has continued to face privacy and children’s safety issues in different parts of the world. In August, the company reached a settlement with dozens of attorneys general in the United States who had accused Meta of violating state and federal laws concerning consumer protection and children’s online privacy.
As part of that settlement, Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion in fines and introduce restrictions for teenagers.
The company is also facing social media restrictions and bans affecting younger users in different parts of the world, while thousands of potential personal injury lawsuits against Meta continue to move through state courts in the United States.
Meta’s latest AI and wearable-device developments therefore come as the company prepares to present its next products at Connect. The event will give the company an opportunity to showcase its AI strategy, including its consumer AI agent and continued development of smart-glasses technology, while privacy remains an important issue surrounding some of its products.
