Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, has directed his company to spend billions of dollars developing new artificial intelligence models. Now Meta is focusing on the next step — having people use them.
On Wednesday, at its annual developer conference in Menlo Park, Calif., the tech giant unveiled three types of smart glasses integrated with A.I., as well as new features for Muse, the A.I. agent released this month, which reached the top of the App Store this week.
The new glasses include a virtual reality pair that can be used to watch live sports and play video games, echoing Apple’s Vision Pro headset. Another pair has no camera above the lens, a concession to concerns about privacy and surveillance, though it can record audio and connect to A.I. The third pair is an upgraded version of the smart glasses that Meta released last year, with a camera.
Muse, which can browse the internet and use software on behalf of users, is adding features in the coming weeks that include the ability to video chat with the agent’s avatar. Muse agents will also get their own email addresses to complete tasks, the company said, potentially easing some privacy concerns over their having access to personal accounts.
Mr. Zuckerberg said at the conference that Meta had gone through an “evolution” over the last few years, from the immersive world of the metaverse to artificial intelligence. His company once believed that the metaverse would come first and advanced A.I. later, he said, “but now it is actually quite clear that personal superintelligence will not only come first, it will be much bigger and more important.”
The new products are part of Mr. Zuckerberg’s visions for a future way for Meta’s A.I. to empower people and improve their lives. He has promoted this message as other leading A.I. companies, like Anthropic, have warned of A.I.’s existential risks and have called for a slowdown in the technology’s development.
Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has been pushing to integrate its A.I. models and agents across all of its products. Its smart glasses will incorporate Muse, for example, so people can control the A.I. agent with their voice. Meta also announced partnerships for Muse with Shopify and Expedia this week.
As Meta expands its business beyond social media, it has two main challenges: making money from its enormous investment in A.I. and increasing its smart glasses business despite privacy concerns. Wednesday’s unveilings were aimed at both, said Avi Greengart, an analyst at Techsponential, a research firm.
“They’re tackling the privacy issues by splitting the product line for those who want cameras and those who don’t,” Mr. Greengart said. With Meta’s A.I. investments and the launch of Muse, “making money from that is a longer-term game,” he added.
While Meta’s Quest V.R. headsets are marketed for gamers, the virtual reality glasses are meant to have a broader appeal. They will cost $1,300 and be released in the spring, the company said. The V.R. glasses are slightly larger than Meta’s other smart glasses and connect to a phone-size battery pack with a cord, similar to the Apple Vision Pro.
In Mr. Zuckerberg’s speech, he echoed last year’s conference, saying smart glasses will be the way the company brings superintelligence to the masses. In the last year, along with developing the technology behind the glasses, Meta has heavily marketed them, working with celebrities like Kylie Jenner and running advertisements connected to events like the Super Bowl and World Cup.
Meta’s new smart glasses also have six different microphones and a feature called “hearing enhancement” that turns them into hearing aids approved by the Food and Drug Administration, Mr. Zuckerberg said.
Meta’s A.I. development is led by Alexandr Wang, the chief A.I. officer, whom Mr. Zuckerberg hired last year. Mr. Wang spoke at Meta’s developer conference for the first time on Wednesday, saying A.I. agents will lead to a “new generation” of shopping.
All of Meta’s new smart glasses, along with Muse, are powered by Muse Spark, the new A.I. model that Mr. Wang’s division, Meta Superintelligence Labs, released in April.
Meta plans to release a more powerful A.I. model, code-named Watermelon, in the coming weeks.
The post Meta Unveils 3 Smart Glasses With Built-In A.I. appeared first on New York Times.
