The CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, wanted to amaze the world with a new tech gadget: a smart glasses that should replace your classic mobile phone. However, during the presentation of the features, the nose bike even refuses simple requests.
What kind of successor is this?
- The Meta Glasses are smart glasses with an interface and built-in AI.
- With the glasses, you should be able to do everything a mobile phone can do: accept calls and make phone calls, shoot videos and photos – even hands-free. Zuckerberg talks about the “end of the mobile phone”.
- Just a glance at objects is enough to recognize them and with a short voice command ask the AI what to do with these things. At least in theory, because during the presentation, it doesn’t work at all.
Things went wrong during the presentation: According to German time, Zuckerberg introduced his new Meta Glasses on Thursday, September 18th, early in the morning around 2:00 AM (on YouTube). A helper was supposed to cook something for him during the presentation.
The idea was to look at a table with ingredients to make a Korean steak sauce, something the user “has never done before.” The glasses initially recognize what is on the table.
When asked how to create a sauce from this, the AI doesn’t respond at all. After a second request, the glasses stiffly claim that the base is already ready and one should rub a pear in.
The somewhat desperate developer asks several times what he should do first – with the same answer: The sauce is already ready. After the third inquiry, he gives up and claims the Wi-Fi isn’t very good (on YouTube, around minute 40:41).
Meta Glasses recognize hand gestures but refuse calls
Zuckerberg jumps in to help and says: No matter how well you prepare for something, if the Wi-Fi doesn’t cooperate, you just don’t stand a chance. The presentation goes on for a while until Zuckerberg finally wants to present another feature (on YouTube, around minute 52:49).
During the live demonstration, he uses the neural band linked to the glasses on his wrist to compose a text in a chat using gestures alone. It works, albeit slowly, but apparently is intended.
The subsequent call, on the other hand, goes completely haywire: In a desperate attempt to accept his colleague’s video call, Zuckerberg repeatedly gestures with his fingers to make the appropriate sign. Nothing happens.
In another attempt, the AI sweetly (and quite mechanically) reminds him that there is a new call incoming… while the old one is still displayed as “not accepted.” The neural band again refuses to recognize the gesture to accept the call.
The faux pas, just like the previous one, is met with laughter from the audience present. But whether the Meta Glasses would have been well received among the younger generation, even if they functioned properly, remains open: Mark Zuckerberg announced the end of the mobile phone, but many young people are rejecting its successor for good reasons
