Meta unveils AI-powered smart glasses with display and neural wristband at Connect event

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MENLO PARK, California (AP) — Meta's newest artificial-intelligence powered smart glasses include a tiny display and can be controlled by a neural wristband that lets you control it with “barely perceptible movements,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Wednesday.

Zuckerberg continues to evangelize the glasses as the next step in human-computer interactions — beyond keyboards, touch screens or a mouse.

“Glasses are the only form factor where you can let AI see what you see, hear what you hear,” and eventually generate what you want to generate, such as images or video, Zuckerberg said, speaking at the tech giant's Menlo Park, California, headquarters.

The glasses, called Meta Ray-Ban Display, will be available Sept. 30 and cost $799.

Mike Proulx, research director at Forrester, said Meta's latest reveal is “reminiscent of when the Apple Watch first debuted as an alternative to the smartphone.”

“But what these glasses do is bring more utility to consumers in a single device. Unlike VR headsets, glasses are an everyday, non-cumbersome form factor," the analyst added. "However, the onus is on Meta to convince the vast majority of people who don’t own AI glasses that the benefits outweigh the cost. The good news? There’s a lot of runway to earn market share.”

Meta also updated its original, display-less Ray-Ban glasses to have a better battery life, which Meta says lasts eight hours with typical use, nearly twice as long as the previous model. An upcoming feature, called “conversation focus,” will amplify the voice of the person the user is speaking to and help drown out background noise. This will be available on the older version of the glasses too, as a software update, Zuckerberg said. Meta also added German and Portuguese to the gadget's live translation capabilities. The new model costs $379, and the previous model now costs $299.

The company also unveiled a new set of AI-powered glasses for athletes, called the Oakley Meta Vanguard, which Meta says is specifically for “high-intensity sports” and can be integrated with Garmin devices to give users feedback about their workouts such as heart rate and stats. For instance, a runner could ask “Hey Meta, what's my heart rate?” and get a voice response through the glasses. It also auto-captures video clips when the user hits key milestones or ramps up their heart rate, speed or elevation. The glasses will cost $499 and go on sale Oct. 21.

While the company has not disclosed sales figures of the glasses, it said they have been more popular than expected.

“For more than a decade, Zuckerberg’s long-term vision with Oculus and the Metaverse has been that glasses and headsets will blur the lines between physical and digital worlds,” Forrester analyst Thomas Husson said. “After many false starts, the momentum to move beyond an early adopter niche is now.”

Meta teased a prototype for Orion, which Zuckerberg called “the most advanced glasses the world has ever seen,” last year — but these holographic augmented reality glasses are still years away from being on the market.

Like other tech companies, Meta has been making massive investments in AI development and hiring top talent at eye-popping compensation levels.

In July, Zuckerberg posted a note detailing his views on “personal superintelligence” that he believes will “help humanity accelerate our pace of progress.” While he said that developing superintelligence is now “in sight,” he did not detail how this will be achieved or exactly what “superintelligence” means. The abstract idea of “superintelligence” is what rival companies call artificial general intelligence, or AGI.

Zuckerberg has said he believes AI glasses are going to be “the main way we integrate superintelligence.”