Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 Review: Upgraded Glasses, Bad Vibes
While wearing them on one of my walks in San Francisco, along Ocean Beach, I came across a dolphin-like fish that had washed up on the sand. Although I moved my camera glasses close enough to the thing that I could smell it, Meta’s AI assistant couldn’t tell me what kind of animal it was. He clearly identified that it was dead and that I should not touch it. He was then able to direct me to a number to call the city’s animal control services.
Beyond cases like that, I tend to avoid AI voice interaction because I haven’t gotten to the point where it feels natural. Getting him to search for something is usually very quick, but it requires you to stop in your tracks, look directly at another person’s purse or something, and say out loud, “Hey Meta. HEY META. Is this bag Gucci?”
The glasses’ AI features are both their greatest asset and their biggest weakness. Features like live translation and whispered map directions are very useful. But if you’ve spent any time sorting through the AI slop from your Facebook feed lately, you’ll know that Meta just can’t help but integrate an explosion of AI features into everything it does.
The software’s functionality is delivered through the same application as Meta’s AI services. This is where photos and videos go by default, and sometimes you have to go into the app to import the files from the glasses. There is one very clear problem when using the app: bad vibrations.
Vibrations are off
When you go to the Meta AI app to look at the photos or videos you’ve taken, the first thing you’ll see is Meta’s terrible new Vibes service; a constant barrage of AI videos that Meta once imposed on its app users. Vibes is similar to OpenAI’s dubious Sora app, but of even worse quality.
