Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced on Wednesday that the company is incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into digital assistants and smart glasses as part of its efforts to compete in the AI industry.
Zuckerberg made these announcements during the Connect developers conference held at Meta’s Silicon Valley headquarters, the company’s primary annual product event.
“Advancements in AI technology enable us to develop various applications and personalities that assist us in accomplishing various tasks,” Zuckerberg stated as he began the conference. “Smart glasses will eventually offer a stylish wearable solution to integrate all these capabilities.”
Smart glasses represent one of several attempts by tech companies to expand beyond the smartphone as a user-friendly device, although they have seen limited success thus far.
Meta’s second-generation Ray-Ban smart glasses, created in collaboration with EssilorLuxottica, will be available starting at $299 when they launch on October 17. These smart glasses will also enable users to live-stream their visual perspective, according to Zuckerberg.
“Smart glasses are the ideal form factor for allowing AI assistants to see and hear what the user experiences,” he explained.
Meta also introduced 28 AI characters that users can interact with on WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram, with “personalities” inspired by celebrities like Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton, and YouTube star MrBeast.
Zuckerberg showcased an interaction with one of these AI characters via a text chat, assuring that voice capabilities for these bots are in development.
“This represents our initial efforts in creating more entertaining AI, but it’s important to note that these systems still have limitations, which users may encounter,” Zuckerberg cautioned.
This in-person edition of Connect was the first since 2019, prior to the pandemic, and attendees had high expectations for announcements related to generative AI.
Meta has chosen a more cautious approach compared to competitors like Microsoft, OpenAI, and Google, emphasizing incremental progress and making its in-house AI models accessible to developers and researchers.
In addition to these AI developments, Meta unveiled the latest version of its Quest virtual reality headset, boasting improved graphics, enhanced audio, and the ability for wearers to maintain awareness of their surroundings without removing the device.
Quest 3 headsets will be available starting at $499 and are scheduled to ship on October 10, as per Meta.
This price point is significantly more affordable than Apple’s Vision Pro, which will retail for $3,499 when released early next year, exclusive to the United States.
Meta’s Chief Technology Officer, Andrew Bosworth, declared that the Quest 3 “offers the best value in the market for the foreseeable future,” eliciting laughter from the audience.
New game titles announced for Quest 3 include Assassin’s Creed Nexus from Ubisoft and a Roblox game.
Yory Wurmser, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence, remarked, “Meta is striving to introduce an enhanced version of mixed reality to a broader audience.”
Meta’s Chief Product Officer, Chris Cox, humorously shared that his sister often ends up inadvertently striking furniture while using virtual reality, an issue that is resolved when the technology digitally enhances the real world around the user.
“We believe that mixed reality represents a significant step beyond virtual reality, which is essentially a fully immersive experience,” Cox explained. “This will make the technology more practical and accessible to a wider audience.”