Meta tests 'super sensing' AI glasses that continuously record without LED warning

Meta tests 'super sensing' AI glasses that can record every moment

Meta is testing a prototype of "super sensing" AI glasses that would use cameras and audio recordings to capture a wearer's every moment, as it pushes into the contentious market for all-seeing, all-hearing devices. The $1.5tn social media platform has been advancing a new hardware line of smart glasses that would continuously record audio while taking photos every few seconds, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. A user could then use AI to help query what they saw or heard, or recall their day. The glasses have prompted internal debates over how to handle novel privacy challenges, including non-wearers finding the technology invasive. With Meta's current AI smart glasses, an LED in the corner of the frame lights up to signal to others when a wearer is taking photographs or filming. However, executives are currently planning not to activate the LED when the super-sensing features are being used, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. That would make it harder for bystanders to know when they were being recorded, potentially intensifying the privacy concerns surrounding the technology. Those plans could still change, however, several people said. The super-sensing features could also be activated on Meta's existing glasses via a software update, the people said. The move comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has argued that AI glasses could one day replace the smartphone as the main device people use to access AI tools including translation or chatbots. In one proposed system, raw footage and audio would not be stored by Meta or made available to the user, several people said. Instead, the metadata from that audio and images would be extracted and uploaded to the server for Meta's AI to query, which proponents argue would have fewer privacy implications. The company is also discussing whether data collected through the glasses and their features could be used to train its own AI models, as it pours billions into rivalling competition such as OpenAI, Google and Anthropic in the AI race. Meta declined to comment on "internal prototypes" but said its approach focused on "privacy built in from the ground up". The Information has previously reported some details about the super-sensing glasses project. Zuckerberg hinted at the technology during Meta's first-quarter earnings, saying he wanted glasses to evolve from "being able to answer questions to being able to be a personal agent that's with you all day long, helping you remember things and achieve your goals". Meta is also exploring other kinds of always-on devices beyond glasses. In December, it bought Limitless, a maker of AI-powered pendants, which can record and transcribe conversations in real time and allow users to search that information via the company's app. Meta has curbed its costly push to build an avatar-filled "metaverse" that needs headsets to access, after the concept failed to gain consumer traction. Instead, it has shifted its virtual and augmented reality strategy towards AI glasses following the success of its Meta Ray-Bans, smart glasses with inbuilt speakers and cameras, sold in partnership with eyewear group EssilorLuxottica. Last month, Meta launched an even cheaper version of those glasses, including one product with frames designed by influencer Kylie Jenner. A more advanced version of the Ray-Ban glasses, released last year, includes a display that can overlay text messages or video calls on to one of the lenses. With the super-sensing glasses, Meta is likely to face novel legal and regulatory challenges as well as fierce resistance from privacy-conscious consumers. Privacy experts argue that always-on devices could violate data privacy or biometric data laws, for example. It is also unclear whether the company or the wearer will be responsible for any breach of wiretapping laws, as it remains illegal in multiple US states to record audio of a third party without their consent. Some are calling for fresh regulation to tackle the nascent space. "There's no one law that addresses all the different dangerous ways these tools have been designed and built," said Woodrow Hartzog, professor of law at the Boston University School of Law. "Lawmakers have to take this seriously and update to accommodate this reality of always-on, always-seeing devices." Meta's current range of Ray-Ban smart glasses already do not light up when a wearer is using AI to ask questions about the world around them. In a 2025 policy paper, Meta said: "If the LED blinked for extended periods at a time (like whenever there was an AI interaction), people could stop noticing it -- reducing the awareness of when photos or videos are being captured by users to have for later." However it added that when glasses were used for AI features, it would "take steps to protect people's privacy, like removing key identifiable information". Meta has faced privacy snafus related to the existing Ray-Ban glasses. In February, contractors in Kenya told the press that they had to view graphic material captured by the glasses, such as users having sex or going to the toilet. Last month, Wired magazine also uncovered code for a facial recognition system that was embedded in Meta's smart glasses platform but unreleased. The company later removed the system.

Meta could be working on always-seeing, always-hearing smart glasses with AI super sensing

Meta apparently wants to create an advanced agent that knows everything about your life. Yikes! Meta is testing arguably its most controversial wearable idea, it seems. According to a report by Financial Times, the social media giant currently has "super sensing" AI glasses at work in its test labs. The core premise behind these AI glasses is that they want to record all the visuals and audio recordings in the world around you. The idea behind these super-sensing AI glasses is not turning them into an always-hearing, always-listening machine that definitely sounds like a privacy nightmare. Meta apparently wants all that data recorded by its next-gen smart glasses to serve as a base of knowledge and eventually turn into a personal agent or assistant. Mark Zuckerberg has previously hinted that this personal agent should be with you around the clock and be able to assist you with anything you need. Instead of just acting like a generic AI agent that listens to your queries and gives an answer based on its memory or the knowledge it has been trained on. This smells dangerous Right now, as soon as a person starts to capture photos or videos using the onboard cameras on Meta's AI smart glasses, a white ring light activates, making sure that any other person who is appearing in the camera's field of view can discern whether they are being recorded. Recommended Videos However, those measures haven't proven to be rock solid. Soon after the launch of Meta's smart glasses, there were multiple reports showing evidence that you could tamper with the LED indicator light, ensuring that videos could be recorded without alerting any other person in the camera view. Last night, Meta announced that it will entirely disable the camera if the LED indicator light is physically tampered with or it is covered. This feature will be rolled out through a software update on the existing lineup of Meta's smart glasses. And that begs the question: if Meta is indeed developing a super-sensing smart wearable, something that keeps recording audio and video constantly, will the LED light forever be on and visible to every person who appears in the camera's frame? "Executives are currently planning not to activate the LED when the super-sensing features are being used, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. That would make it harder for bystanders to know when they were being recorded, potentially intensifying the privacy concerns surrounding the technology. Those plans could still change, however, several people said," says the report. The plans are ready Most importantly, it appears that the super sensing feature is already ready for deployment, and it can be activated on Meta's existing range of smart glasses through a software update. The idea is pretty controversial, but it seems Meta has a solution for that as well. One of the proposals for implementing this system mentions that all the data and voice recorded by the AI smart glasses will neither be available to the user for download nor will it be shared with Meta. Instead, all the metadata collected from the audio clips and pictures will be extracted and fed to Meta AI so that it can accordingly answer user queries. The company is also mulling the possibility of using this recorded data to train its own AI models, something that is definitely going to raise privacy alarms.

Meta's New Smart Glasses Said to Arrive With 'Super Sensing' Capabilities

* Meta might store the metadata of audio and video recordings * Meta's new smart glasses could continuously record audio * Meta has yet to confirm the development Meta and Ray-Ban have now launched two generations of smart glasses. The Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 Glasses were launched in September last year, retaining most of the Gen 1 functionalities, featuring a world-facing camera on one side of the frame and an LED recording indicator on the other. In the same month, the Mark Zuckerberg-led tech giant also unveiled the Meta Ray-Ban Display augmented reality (AR) smart glasses. Now, the US-based company is said to be testing a new pair of "all-seeing" and "all-hearing" smart eyewear, which might continuously record audio and take photos to answer a wearer's queries. Meta's Technology Could Work on Existing Models After an OTA Update A Financial Times report citing people with knowledge of the matter states that Meta has started testing the prototype of its new "super sensing" smart glasses. The AI-powered wearables will reportedly be capable of continuously recording audio "every few seconds", dubbed as an "all-seeing" and an "all-hearing" device. Meta's AI models will then be able to use the audio recordings and captured images to generate context-based responses against user queries, the report added. For example, wearers will reportedly be able to ask Meta's "super sensing" AI glasses to recall their day and answer specific questions regarding something the user saw or heard. The report further highlights that Meta's leadership does not plan to activate the LED recording indicator when the smart glasses are recording audio snippets and images. Other Meta smart glasses are equipped with an LED light on one side of the smart eyewear's frame to let others know that they are being recorded. However, Meta's rumoured decision could make it harder for people to figure out whether they are on camera or not, leading to privacy concerns. Since Meta's new smart glasses are still in the prototype testing phase, the plans could change in the future, the report pointed out. Interestingly, the tech giant can also enable the "super sensing" functionality on the existing generations of the Meta smart glasses, the report highlighted. The company will reportedly be able to do this by rolling out a software update to older Ray-Ban Meta Glasses. According to the report, the company is also considering not storing the raw footage and audio clips on its servers. Instead, it can simply seed the extracted metadata from the files to its servers, allowing Meta's AI agent to respond based on the same. This might raise fewer privacy concerns. This data can reportedly be used to train Meta's AI agents, too.