Meta's camera-free smart glasses Luna surface, and the six microphones draw scrutiny
After backlash over its camera-equipped glasses, Meta is developing a camera-free version called Luna that uses six microphones to reach its AI chatbot and Muse agent, and the author questions whether the microphones collect just as much private data.
🦔Meta is developing a camera-free version of its smart glasses called Luna after backlash over its camera-equipped models being called "pervert glasses." Luna has six microphones so users can talk to Meta's AI chatbot and its AI agent Muse, and a button to activate it. No cameras. Meta's Reality Labs division, which makes all of this hardware, reported another massive loss in April. My Take Meta removed the camera because the backlash hurt sales. I don't think it had anything to do with privacy. The six microphones are still there and microphones don't get the same backlash even though they pick up just as much personal information. If someone wears these next to you at lunch, Meta's AI hears your conversation. There's no indicator light for a microphone the way there is for a camera. Without a camera these are basically AirPods that sit on your face instead of in your ears, except they have six microphones instead of two and everything goes through Meta's AI instead of Apple's. Meta has lost billions on this hardware and keeps funding it anyway. Millions of people wearing six microphones all day generate an enormous amount of real world audio data. That's training data for Meta's AI models, and it's worth far more to the company than whatever they charge you for the glasses. Hedgie🤗