AI

No AI glasses? You'll be at a 'cognitive disadvantage,' predicts Mark Zuckerberg.

Meta Connect annual event at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicts that not having smart glasses will become a "cognitive disadvantage." Manuel Orbegozo/REUTERS
Read in app

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg thinks smart glasses are the future.

During Meta's second-quarter earnings call, Zuckerberg doubled down on the idea that smart glasses will soon become the main way people interact with AI and replace other devices as "primary computing devices."

"I continue to think that glasses are basically going to be the ideal form factor for AI," he told investors on Wednesday's call, adding that wearables with cameras, microphones, and displays will unlock new levels of utility.

"I think in the future, if you don't have glasses that have AI or some way to interact with AI, I think you'd probably be at a pretty significant cognitive disadvantage compared to other people," Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg's bullish sentiments on AI wearables echo his letter earlier in the day, which predicted the rise of "personal superintelligence."

"Personal superintelligence that knows us deeply, understands our goals, and can help us achieve them will be by far the most useful," wrote Zuckerberg in the letter published on Meta's blog.

Meta has been ramping up its wearables business with its Ray-Ban smart glasses and a recent partnership with Oakley. The devices let users stream music, take photos, record video, and ask Meta's chatbot about what they're seeing.

Sales have been "accelerating," according to the earnings report, and helped drive a revenue increase of nearly 5% for the Reality Labs division.

EssilorLuxottica said in its earnings on Monday that revenue from sales of its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses more than tripled year over year.

Meta has also been investing billions in acquiring AI talent, often from competing companies with jaw-dropping offers. Zuckerberg invested $15 billion in Scale AI to bring its CEO, Alexandr Wang, into the fold and lured at least four employees from OpenAI, one of whom is a co-creator of ChatGPT.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read next

Katherine Li, West Coast breaking news reporter at the Business Insider.
Katherine Li
Katherine Li is a reporter on Business Insider's West Coast business news team. She covers career,  the AI startup culture, and how AI is affecting economic sentiments.Previously, she was a newsroom fellow who wrote international breaking news and produced newsletters for Semafor. Before that, she wrote about climate policies for The Lever, covered the AAPI community for the SF Chronicle as a freelancer, and wrote about the 2019 Hong Kong protests as an intern for The New York Times.She is an alumna of the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley and a graduate of the international journalism program at Hong Kong Baptist University with minors in French and English literature.  Email Katherine at katherineli@insider.com and follow her on Bluesky @katherineli.bsky.socialExpertise
  • Careers and hiring trends
  • AI startups
  • Trade policies & tariffs
Some of her best works include:I'm an early participant in a UBI program that helps workers displaced by AI, and the support is life-changingAI startups are shifting the economic center of gravity of San FranciscoCompanies are struggling to fill manufacturing positions, let alone plan for what Trump's administration has in mindNightmare on Main Street: Trump's trade war is hurting American small businesses