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I have stepped back from the blog recently, mainly to work on synthesising my field notes into a full paper, reflect on the experience, and summarise my findings. A first draft of that full paper is available on the preprint server Zenodo, here. What I really think happened from this experience, is that the glasses…

Yesterday Meta announced that they would be turning off the camera function if any attempt is made to interfere with the LED light. This includes lens covers, which I have posted about before and even procured a pair on Amazon to try. Meta states that now: “The camera is disabled when people try to do this. Beginning with our second generation of glasses, the camera is automatically disabled if we detect that the capture LED has been blocked. No photos or videos can be taken until we detect that the light is unblocked. Since the introduction of this safeguard, we’ve seen some people go beyond using tape to sophisticated efforts to modify or destroy the capture LED. We are continuously improving our ability to detect tampering, and now we’re updating the glasses to disable the camera if they detect the LED was physically tampered with or destroyed. No other kind of camera has done this and we’re proud to lead the industry forward.”Here’s why, based on my experience wearing AI…

I have now noticed when doomscrolling on Instagram that there is sometimes a little label on the clips saying ‘Shot with Ray-Ban Meta’. I have also found, on the Meta AI app, something called ‘Vibes’, which is basically Instagram videos but they are entirely AI-generated (or ‘AI slop’ as some call it). I can use…

A recent post on BlueSky went viral, describing AI as a ‘monster in the forest’. I love this metaphorical story and the way it’s written. The old-timey writing, the mythological, fantasy-genre setting, and the accuracy of the story. AI tells you what you want to hear. It has all of the information, and will tell…

I’m postponing my regular field-notes update until later in the week, so that I can quickly comment on this news. 19 hours ago, Meta published “We’re Partnering With EssilorLuxottica to Launch Meta Glasses“ This is a huge moment. I want to set that against another piece of information: this morning I woke up to several…

It’s time to write a bit more about privacy and surveillance. This is without a doubt the topic that people have found the most interesting and concerning – in my daily conversations, in my online discussions on LinkedIn with other academics, and also, in the news. Every day it seems, a new story about Meta,…

Even though this blog is my own writing, it’s not published, and I’m not beholden to any publisher rules, I don’t really enjoy having AI write for me. I find the writing, no matter how advanced the models get, to be too plain, too perfect, too banal. I hate having things ‘land’, or ‘delving’ into…

My AI assistant is not what I hoped for, but is what I expected. Perhaps it was never expected that these glasses be worn in the way I am wearing them – all day, every day. Or maybe notifications are not supposed to be on all the time, and I have my volume too high.…

Twelve years ago, there was a piece published in the Guardian titled “Google Glass Advice: How to avoid being a glasshole.”   Q: What was a glasshole?A: It was/is the derogatory name for the early wearers of Google’s first wearable tech – Google Glass.  Q: What was Google Glass?A: Smart glasses, kind of. They had no…

Today has been a frustrating day, and I’ve almost broken my rules. (If you’re new to the blog, they are in the first post, here). Specifically, the rule I have almost broken is “wear the glasses”, because I am considering throwing them in a lake and retreating to life as a hermit in the forest…