Meta Pushes Smart Glasses as the Next AI Platform

Meta is making an aggressive push to own the next major computing platform, betting that AI-enabled smart glasses will eventually replace the smartphone as the primary way people interact with artificial intelligence. The company recently opened a private demo room at its Menlo Park, California, headquarters to showcase a growing family of wearable devices, signaling that the race to build AI-friendly hardware is now as important as the competition to build the smartest AI models.

The lineup includes the flagship Ray-Ban Wayfarer camera glasses with an updated nine-hour battery life, Ray-Bans equipped with a lens display and a «neural» wristband, new audio-only smart glasses that drop the built-in camera, additional frame styles such as Aviators, and prototypes like the Orion augmented reality glasses. In a demo, a high-resolution digital box projected inside the right lens allowed apps to be opened by tapping a thumb and forefinger together, while a voice command triggered a conversation with an AI bot.

Meta's position in this market is unusual. Its AI models generally trail those of rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic, yet it has pulled ahead in AI-enabled glasses. Sales of its smart glasses tripled last year, and EssilorLuxottica, the parent company of Ray-Ban, says it sold 7 million pairs of AI-enabled glasses in 2025. A strategic partnership with EssilorLuxottica has been central to that success, helping Meta combine technology with frames that people actually want to wear.

Alex Himel, Meta's vice president of wearables, credits an early bet on the category and a decision to prioritize fashion. Customers use the smart features only about 10 percent of the time, he said, so the glasses must be desirable for their look and weight. EssilorLuxottica held Meta to 50 grams or below for most models. «We're able to keep adding this stuff into something that you're already wearing for other reasons,» Himel said of the technology.

One new capability Himel highlighted is agentic AI powered by Meta's latest Muse Spark model, which allows the glasses to carry out multistep routines such as managing personal schedules and scanning emails. A new hologram feature scans a user's face and records expressions to produce a 3D animated simulacrum. When a wearer calls a friend through Meta-owned WhatsApp, the hologram appears on the recipient's screen, and the friend's hologram can appear inside the glasses.

Meta also announced a new pair of virtual reality glasses weighing only 100 grams, with capabilities for cinema display, gaming, and spatial computing. The company says they will ship in the spring and cost $1,299. The Ray-Ban Display glasses start at $799, the third-generation flagship camera-enabled Ray-Bans cost $449, and the new audio-only glasses start at $349, shipping in the Ray-Ban Clubmaster and Burbank styles.

The technology still has rough edges. The glasses did not always respond to thumb swipes and sometimes lagged after voice commands. Meta's AI occasionally struggled to identify objects cleanly, such as when it tried to calculate the calories in a tray of food. The company said there is a natural learning curve and that the technology usually works for most people without issue.

Privacy remains the larger concern. Meta has already had to respond to users disabling the LED light that alerts people nearby that the camera is recording. The company recently created a policy to deactivate recording if the LED has been tampered with, and it will delete the accounts of anyone who uses a modified device and posts harassing content.

Stopping abusive users is only part of the challenge. The most compelling features of AI devices depend on the ability to make sense of the surrounding world rather than relying on on-screen data alone, creating inherent tension with privacy norms. Recently announced Apple Watch features such as Siri Recap, which listens to conversations and provides an AI-generated summary, have raised concerns about consent. OpenAI's forthcoming device, rumored to be a portable smart speaker, could face similar eavesdropping questions.

For Meta, the stakes go beyond hardware sales. Control over the next hardware platform could determine how billions of people access AI, regardless of whose bots are the smartest. With Apple, OpenAI, and numerous startups working on new devices, the company's early lead in smart glasses gives it a rare advantage in a race that is still wide open.

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Delaney Sawyer

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Delaney Sawyer covers public affairs, politics, business, culture and daily news for Core Memo. The role focuses on verification, context, and clear explanations for readers.

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