AI wearable faces privacy backlash as Oura IPO delays

Two years ago, Bela Nowrouj noticed something strange while on a date at a shopping mall. It turned out that the light on my colleague’s glasses was blinking.

The 24-year-old master’s student immediately recognized the frames as Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses he had seen on social media. She tells him to delete the recording.

“Honestly, I was pretty shocked,” Norouzi told CNBC, recalling the exchange. “I had never experienced anything like that before. I was also scared to openly go on dates after that like I used to.”

apple, google, Meta And a bevy of other tech competitors are betting that new artificially intelligent wearables in the form of glasses, rings, charms and pendants can propel the market into a category-defining moment. But as these gadgets gain notoriety, so too does a backlash over privacy and questions about whether the technology is useful enough to become a part of everyday life.

Meta made a splash last week when it announced the Tamagotchi-like Muse Charm, a custom housing for its personal agent app that quickly topped the list of free apps on Apple’s iOS App Store. The company continues to release new versions of its Meta Ray-Ban AI glasses, offering a variety of models at different price points.

This week, OpenAI rolled out its own personal assistant called Dots. The ChatGPT maker is also working with iPhone designer Jony Ive on a consumer device, but the first product likely won’t be a wearable, according to Bloomberg. In early September, Apple gave the Watch Series 12 a look at its latest device with AI capabilities that listen to conversations.

In addition to the abundance of devices available, the market looked to maintain momentum this week with the debut of smart ring maker Oura.

But on Tuesday, the company postponed its planned initial public offering at the last minute, even though it had signaled strong demand for its products.

Oura cited “uncertainty in the IPO market” as the reason, but some analysts were skeptical.

“I really believe there are other reasons why they’re pulling out of IPOs. I don’t think it’s the market’s fault,” said Anshel Sugg, principal analyst at Moore Insights and Strategy. “I have no idea what that is.”

“It’s kind of weird that they jump out of this IPO,” he said.

brand issues

Meta is overcoming backlash for its smart glasses, which have been dubbed “pervert glasses” on social media because they feature discreet cameras that could be used for harassment or other misconduct.

One social media user said a man took a photo of her without her permission during a date. Another said a Facebook Marketplace buyer filmed her and her children without permission. Mehta’s own ad campaign, which featured Kylie Jenner filming her daily life, sparked further criticism of the surveillance-like nature of the video.

Mehta did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Gil Luria, an analyst at DA Davidson, said the growing resistance to camera glasses is a difficult battle to overcome.

“At this point, it’s over,” Luria said. “We’re going to have to revisit this 10 years from now.”

When Luria gave her twin teenage sons the glasses for the first time last year, they were “so excited.” He says now they “aren’t going to get caught and die.”

Last month, Meta announced a camera-less smart glasses option.

The explosion in wearables couldn’t come at a more important time, as the policy debate over the safety risks of AI rages on in Washington and the backlash gains attention ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Far from the cute, fuzzy exterior of the meta muse character known as Jolie, the sprawling data center has become a visual symbol of opposition to AI in the United States. Many argue that wearables and other devices that constantly listen and record audio have become an extension of our perceived surveillance state.

Flock Safety’s license plate scanners have been vandalized, and cities have terminated contracts with the company following community outcry. Due to privacy concerns, smart glasses are prohibited from being used in places such as gyms.

In February, a judge in the Los Angeles Meta social media addiction trial threatened to hold anyone in contempt of court for using AI smart glasses during CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony. Several people accompanying Zuckerberg to court wore Meta Ray-Ban AI glasses.

“The added value of AI has to overcome the perception that it is a technology that people are against,” Sugg said. “It has to be more helpful than people’s fears about it.”

Design and execution

GPS puts maps on your screen, smartphones give rise to pocket-sized personal computers, and AI promises to bring efficiency and automation to everyday life.

In the wearables market, new gadgets are competing to create a new category of devices, but today’s most futuristic gadgets aren’t necessarily what consumers want, said Avi Greengart, founder and technology analyst at market research firm Texponential.

From measuring sleep to tracking exercise to detecting accidents, health wearables show immense potential in a market cornered by big tech companies like Apple and Google, and even startup Oura. Accessibility features added to Apple’s AirPods are turning the popular headphones into hearing aids, Greengart said.

But some of the flashier emerging AI technologies, such as pins and pendants, face major design and implementation hurdles.

Greengart pointed to the Rabbit r1 personal assistant, which lacked a clear use case with smartphones and faced technical and hardware issues. Another failed contender was the Humane AI Pin, which was discontinued last year due to poor customer reviews.

“If you force someone to spend $700 on a device that overheats, has a user interface that doesn’t work in sunlight, and has a short battery life, it’s not going to work unless the way it works is magical,” Greengart said.

Nowrouzi, whose sister owns Meta Glasses, is holding off on jumping on the AI ​​wearables wave.

“I can’t really see how this is any different than what you can do over the phone,” she says.