Meta Ray-Ban has just released its newest AI-powered smart glasses, with a built-in screen display showing live feed, and a variety of AI features baked in. Sounds like the future is here
sooner than we expected. However, not enough people are concerned about this stealthy technology.The Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) AI glasses feature an in-lens display that lets you check messages, get live translations, and even get live captions while having conversations. A new and improved voice recognition system with AI assistance, able to be fully controlled with wrist gestures due to the neural wristband. So, a personal AI robot that can answer and display anything at any time. Sounds great, right? But here’s why it’s worrying: these glasses have a built-in camera and microphone, meaning you can record anything or anyone with the click of a button. This makes it way easier and less detectable than any phone or camera. It displays a little light while recording is in progress, and while that alone is extremely hard to
notice, simply putting a piece of tape over the light makes recording one hundred percent
undetectable. The boundary between public-permitted recording and private life becomes blurry. For
the privacy of everyone around you, these are not safe at all for society, and even less in school
grounds. The live AI answering ability means that with just looking at a question, students can
receive instant answers shown in the built-in display. This level of data collection is not suitable
at all for a learning environment and would make students even more AI-reliant than the rising
issues already. To make matters even worse, these glasses can come in a prescription form, 
meaning students can claim not to be able to see without them, sneakily using the AI hardware
capabilities behind the teacher’s back. It may look like a student is paying attention to the
vital lesson being taught, but they could be looking at a YouTube video in the corner of
their glasses the whole time.

So what’s the next step for banning these terrifying lenses? First things first, clear school
policies: It needs to be known to students that clear, defined rules for the use of these glasses exist, and
when they should be allowed for usage. Young students should also be educated and aware of
why smart recording glasses are an issue. Many today are not concerned about the usage of AI
and are becoming even more reliant on it by the day. Understanding the consent and privacy
boundaries is extremely important for a school setting, as well as for members of society.
So while it is a big leap into the future, and in theory could be used for many beneficial things,
they come with extremely hazardous trade-offs. In a world of social media, AI, and a lack of
respect or understanding, these features are turned more into threats than “cool” and “sci-fi”. So,
anyone looking to be the next owner of these inventions should be aware of the dangers and know
the boundaries. Before they change how we live and interact forever.