Meta’s new AI glasses may continuously record what users see and hear: Report

Meta is reportedly working a new generation of AI-powered smart glasses that could continuously capture what users see and hear throughout the day.

According to a report by the Financial Times, the prototype, internally referred to as “super sensing”, uses the glasses’ cameras and microphones to periodically capture images and audio and gives users the option to later ask Meta AI about what they saw or heard during the day.

Reportedly, the glasses would continuously collect audio while taking photos every few seconds. While the current generation of Meta glasses have an LED indicator that lights up when the wearer is taking photos or videos, the company is reportedly planning to not activate the LED when its new super-sensing features are being used.

Meanwhile, the report notes that these super-sensing features could also be activated on Meta’s current lineup of glasses via a software update.

How will Meta’s all listening glasses work?

In one of the proposed system, Meta will reportedly not store raw footage or audio and these won’t be available to the user either. Instead, the tech giant is considering extracting metadata from the images and audio before uploading it to its servers, where itsMeta AI models could process and answer user questions.

For example, the user could ask Meta AI where they left an item during the day or details about a place they visited earlier.

The company is also said to be discussing whether the data collected via these new glasses could be used to train its own AI models. Notably, Meta has poured in billions of dollars in the AI race to compete with the likes of OpenAI, Google and Anthropic.

Meta told Financial Times that it would not comment on ‘internal prototypes’ but noted that its approach was focused on “privacy built in from the ground up”. The company also pointed to Project Aria which it noted “uses privacy-protective technologies to help people without capturing photos and videos the way traditional cameras work”, including for features that automatically convert speech into readable text.

Reportedly, Mark Zuckerberg has previously said that he believes AI glasses could eventually replace smartphones as the primary way people interact with AI including for tasks like translations, answering questions and acting as a personal AI assistant

The Meta CEO had also hinted at the possibility of these kind of glasses during the first quarter earnings earlier in the year.

“I’m also really excited to see the glasses 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 beyond glasses.” the Meta CEO said

Meanwhile, Meta also bought AI pendant maker Limitless in December last year. The startup produced AI gadgets that can record and transcribe conveersations in real time and search for information later on in the company’s app.