‘Awkward’ or ‘Tech Moment’? Lorde hates on AI glasses as Kylie Jenner faces backlash over Meta campaign
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Lorde has made her stance on AI smart glasses very clear.
During his entourage at Madrid’s Mad Cool Festival over the weekend, the singer paused to focus on wearable AI technology, encouraging fans to think twice before embracing it.
“Increasingly, in our world, it’s harder and harder to know what’s real,” he told the crowd. “I’ll just say, for the record, f— glasses. Don’t get glasses. They’re not sexy.”
Lorde isn’t the only celebrity fueling the conversation about AI-powered eyewear.
Kylie Jenner is facing a lot of trouble because of her cooperation with Meta to design his own line of wearable tech, which includes a camera, hands-free recording capabilities and an AI assistant that sounds like him.
“2026, the year to realize I’m the new voice of Meta AI. We love the technology era,” Jenner said in an ad promoting the collaboration. Another ad features a phone call from the momager herself, Chris Jenner.
The collaboration has drawn criticism online, with some questioning the promotion of wearable cameras in between reports from around the world of people using smart glasses to record privately others in public – especially women – without permission.
Jenner continued to promote the collection on social media. It also includes a new cat style designed by the star.
She wrote on Instagram last month, “great night with @metaglasses ! my meta glasses are out now ðŸ¤,” though her comments section paints a different picture.
While some fans celebrated the launch, others called the glasses “terrible product from an untrustworthy company,” and campaign “so out of touch it’s actually crazy.” One person said the ads were like “the beginning of the black mirror episode.”
One commentator said, “these glasses are creepy af. People filming people without permission and using that video is not cool at all.“
Others have pointed to Jenner’s past comments about being photographed by paparazzi as a child.
Critics point to Jenner’s experience
“When I’m in LA, for some reason when I’m here, it’s hard for me to leave the house,” Jenner said in May of Jake Shane. Therapus a podcast.
Jenner described being constantly poked by the paparazzi as a young person in the public eye.
“They were about six and they stood in front of my car when I was 16 when I opened my car,” he said. He added that they will stop and wait, some even mock him.
“They wanted to make more money with a scandalous image. And I was a little girl alone, with no safety. It was scary at times.”
‘We should all be concerned’
Some critics say those events stand in stark contrast to Jenner’s decision to market the glasses.
“We should all be concerned,” said Farrah Khan, an affirmative action teacher and gender justice advocate.
“What we know about stalking and surveillance and harassment is that a lot of this damage is happening to women. Women are dealing with it. So if she’s participating in that, she’s trying to shift that narrative and change it.
Khan said Jenner’s involvement could be seen as a “betrayal” of her fans and fans, but companies must ultimately be held accountable.
“Technology companies make a profit from surveillance and damage and say, ‘Okay, it’s up to the user,'” he said. “No, you are responsible and you need to be responsible in these times all the time.”
CBC News asked Meta for an interview, but the company declined and instead pointed to a news release explaining the safety features of the glasses.
“There’s a light on the front of all our AI glasses that we call a capture LED. Whenever content is captured in your gallery, this white light flashes to let people know you’re capturing content,” the company said in a release.
“It’s there to let people around you know that when you take a photo or video you can save it to your gallery and share it with others. While cell phones and gaming cameras don’t have this in their cameras, ours did from day one.”
Meta under pressure
Last week, Meta backtracked on a feature that would have allowed users of its apps to create AI content using other users’ social accounts. The feature has drawn concern from Hollywood agencies and unions, including CAA and SAG-AFTRA.
“No person’s name, image, likeness, voice, or artwork may be used by any third party, including AI models, without express, written permission,” CAA said in a statement.
In an emailed statement to CBC News shortly after 7 pm ET on Friday, a Meta spokesperson said: “We’ve heard back that this feature missed the mark, so it’s no longer available.”
