AI and smart glasses: Upswing for Meta and Zuckerberg

He has curls, he has gold chains, he wears a black shirt on the Connect stage with the inscription: aut Zuck, aut nihil. The phrase is said to come from Julius Caesar, modified to mean either Zuck or nothing. Well, perhaps arrogance and humor are very close together here. But perhaps for good reasons. Zuck is suddenly really good at humor. He is relaxed and funny during his big keynote, joking about the demo god who never means well with live presentations. The robotic quality that long characterized Mark Zuckerberg in interviews has disappeared. He's more like the guy we remember from videos from the early days of Facebook. The guy who calls a corridor in his campus in Menlo Park "Beer Pong Alley".

And with the robot, some of the swan song for Meta has also disappeared. Okay, Facebook itself isn't becoming cool again, but is bursting with AI-generated images that attract attention and clicks. And the metaverse is not yet where it wants to be. But perhaps the Metaverse, including the renaming of the company to Meta, was only ever a distraction to avoid reminding people of the scandals surrounding Cambridge Analytica and Frances Haugen's revelations, which were closely linked to the Facebook name.

Ein Kommentar von Eva-Maria Weiß

Eva-Maria Weiß hat an der Universität Wien Kommunikationswissenschaft mit dem Schwerpunkt Medienpsychologie studiert und arbeitet seither als Journalistin.

Smart glasses and AI give Meta a boost

Thanks to AI and smart glasses, Meta is on the rise again. Some are even talking about the iPhone moment. The enthusiasm for the Orion augmented reality glasses, which Zuckerberg presented at Connect, is likely to put him in an even better mood. The glasses were carried onto the stage in a silver case that was attached to the wearer's wrist with chains and handcuffs. Funny, funny, goes like this. Great applause from the audience. With Orion, you can see your surroundings, but virtual elements are also displayed. The glasses are controlled by means of eye tracking, which requires a thin wristband. Impressive. Of course, Snap's Spectacles can already do this, but the field of vision is more limited and the battery life still has room for improvement. You won't be able to make a real comparison until you've worn both. The Spectacles are already available. Orion is still a prototype.

However, headsets such as the Apple Vision Pro or the company's own Quest, which is now available as an affordable version, are no competition. They rely on cameras that show the surroundings on the display inside the glasses.

The Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, which have been available for some time, also fall into the new smart glasses device category. They are dependent on the smartphone, must be connected to it and therefore cannot replace it. But unlike the Humane AI Pin or the Rabbit r1, for example, they offer added value as an additional device. "Hey Meta, please point me in the direction of the restaurant." And the glasses guide the wearer through the city as a navigation system. No more looking at your cell phone and having Google Maps open. "Hey Meta, remind me to take this book with me tomorrow." The glasses take a photo, make a note and remind the wearer of the book the next day at the desired time.

The updates for the glasses also include a real-time translator. Zuckerberg demonstrates this live on stage. But there he is, the demo god, putting a spanner in the works. Zuckerberg understands his counterpart, who speaks Spanish, and talks away even before the translator has done its job. This confuses the AI. Zuckerberg laughs. The audience laughs with him and feels at ease.

Meta versus regulator

Unfortunately, Meta AI, the AI based on the new Large Language Model Llama 3.2, is still not available in the EU. The reasons are once again regulations and a lack of consensus within the states, says Meta. Yes. But. Other companies also manage to offer their AI services here. Meta also wants to exert pressure to influence regulation a little more. Which they are right to do; without data from the EU, AI models know neither the languages nor the culture of the EU. However, it should be possible to make the consent to use the data GDPR-compliant.

You also have to give Meta credit for the fact that they offer their LLMs as open source. This is a huge difference to OpenAI, for example. Google has open source models, but Gemini does not. Are Zuckerberg and Meta suddenly the good guys? Meta also stands for net neutrality in the peering dispute with Deutsche Telekom. WhatsApp has been lobbying against chat control for years. Smart glasses have real potential to soon be on everyone's nose, just like smartphones are in their pockets. Not always and permanently, but often and in many cases. These curls look good on Zuckerberg. Let's see how long they get.

Transparency notice: The author was invited to Meta Connect in Menlo Park by Meta. Meta covered the travel costs. There were no specifications regarding the nature and scope of our reporting.

(emw)