Meta Expands Wearable AI Push With New Muse Agent and Next-Generation Glasses

Meta is stepping up its investment in artificial intelligence with a major expansion of its wearable technology, while Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to argue that the industry should keep developing increasingly capable AI rather than collectively slowing its progress.

At the company's annual Connect conference in Menlo Park, California, Meta presented a series of new products and updates built around artificial intelligence. The announcements included expanded capabilities for the company's Muse AI agent, new smart glasses, an audio-only version of its Ray-Ban glasses and a much lighter virtual reality device that is being redesigned around a glasses-style form.

The announcements demonstrate how closely Meta is linking its artificial intelligence ambitions with hardware. Rather than limiting AI to smartphones and computers, the company is developing products intended to make its assistant available while people are moving around, working, travelling or carrying out everyday activities.

Zuckerberg has previously said that he expects wearable AI eventually to become one of the main ways people interact with technology. The latest announcements provide a clearer picture of how Meta intends to pursue that objective, with glasses, AI agents and virtual reality products becoming increasingly connected.

Meta Puts Muse at the Centre of Its AI Strategy

One of the most important announcements at the conference concerned Muse, Meta's recently introduced personal AI agent. Unlike a conventional chatbot that primarily responds to questions, Muse is designed to carry out tasks on a user's behalf.

Meta says Muse can help users manage projects and goals, make plans and perform practical tasks using connected applications and online services. The company has also designed the system to remember information that users have previously provided, allowing it to make suggestions and potentially take action without every instruction having to be repeated.

During demonstrations at Connect, Meta showed Muse being used for activities including travel planning, making reservations and ordering groceries. The company has established partnerships with services including OpenTable, Spotify and Ticketmaster to help its AI agent interact with outside services.

The intention is to move AI beyond simply producing an answer on a screen. Instead, Meta wants Muse to become something closer to a digital assistant that can take a user's request and then complete some of the work required to achieve it.

Meta introduced Muse earlier in September and says the system operates through a dedicated secure virtual machine. The company says this environment is designed to isolate the agent and the user's information while providing additional controls over the actions Muse can take.

Privacy and Control Become More Important as AI Takes Action

The move towards AI agents also creates a different set of challenges from those associated with conventional chatbots. If an AI system is simply answering questions, an incorrect response can generally be ignored or corrected. An agent that can send messages, make purchases or book services has the ability to create real-world consequences.

Meta says Muse has therefore been designed with additional safeguards. The company says users determine which applications the agent can access and what level of permission it receives. It also says Muse can request confirmation before sensitive actions, such as sending an email or completing a purchase.

Meta says users will also be able to see an audit trail showing what Muse has done and what it plans to do. Credentials such as passwords and payment information are intended to remain protected rather than being directly visible to the AI agent.

The company is also planning another security system called Muse Confidential VM. Meta says this will provide additional encryption for the virtual machine, with a key controlled by the user rather than Meta.

These measures are important to Meta's wider attempt to persuade consumers that AI agents can be trusted with increasingly personal tasks. The more useful an agent becomes, the greater the amount of personal information and digital access it may potentially require.

Muse Is Being Designed for Wearable Devices

Meta's longer-term plan is to make Muse available through its AI-powered glasses. This would allow people to interact with the agent without reaching for a phone or sitting in front of a computer.

A wearer could potentially ask the assistant a question, request information about their surroundings or tell it to carry out a task using voice commands. Because the glasses can remain with the user throughout the day, Meta sees them as a natural platform for a personal AI assistant.

Meta is also developing a small physical device called Muse Charm. Zuckerberg described the product as a keychain-style device containing the Muse experience. It is expected to arrive around the holiday period in December.

The palm-sized device is intended to give people access to their personal AI without requiring a smartphone, computer or glasses. It represents another experiment by Meta in finding ways for people to maintain continuous access to an AI assistant.

New Ray-Ban Meta Audio Glasses Arrive Without a Camera

Meta is also expanding its smart glasses range with a new audio-focused model. The Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses are designed to provide access to music, telephone calls and Meta's AI assistant without including a screen or video-recording system.

The new glasses are due to go on sale in October with prices starting at $349. By removing the camera and display, Meta is offering a different type of wearable from its existing camera-equipped smart glasses.

The decision is significant because privacy has been one of the recurring issues surrounding smart glasses. Camera-equipped glasses can raise concerns about people being recorded without their knowledge, particularly in public places or during conversations.

An audio-only design avoids some of those concerns while retaining several of the features that make wearable technology useful. Users can listen to audio, make calls and communicate with an AI assistant without having to look at a screen.

Meta Adds Hearing Features to Its Smart Glasses

Meta is also expanding the practical uses of its existing AI glasses. The company announced a hearing enhancement feature that is intended to help people hear conversations more clearly in noisy environments.

The feature is being introduced in the United States for supported glasses and is described by Meta as an over-the-counter hearing aid capability for people with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss.

Meta says the hearing enhancement feature will be available as an additional purchase for $150 or through a Meta One subscription. The development shows how the company is attempting to make its glasses useful for purposes beyond entertainment and AI conversations.

The company is also expanding the number of styles available across its Ray-Ban, Oakley and Meta-branded glasses. Meta says it expects more than 100 different options to be available by the end of the year, while the products are also being introduced into additional international markets.

New Generation of Ray-Ban Meta Glasses

Meta has also introduced a new generation of its standard Ray-Ban Meta glasses. The company says the latest version has a slimmer design and improved battery life, while continuing to provide access to the features that have helped establish the glasses as one of its most visible consumer AI products.

The Generation 3 models are available with prices starting at $449. Meta is clearly attempting to broaden the appeal of the category by offering different designs and levels of functionality rather than relying on a single type of smart glasses.

The strategy also gives Meta more opportunities to introduce AI into people's daily routines. The glasses can provide information and assistance without requiring users to stop what they are doing and interact with a traditional screen.

Meta Redesigns Virtual Reality Around Glasses

One of the biggest hardware announcements at Connect was Meta's redesigned virtual reality system. The company is moving away from the heavier headset format used by previous products and introducing a much lighter pair of glasses.

The new Meta VR Glasses weigh about 100 grams, compared with roughly five times that amount for the Meta Quest 3. The reduction in weight is intended to make immersive computing more practical and comfortable for longer periods of use.

The glasses are connected by a cable to an external device that provides battery power, storage and computing capabilities. Rather than relying on traditional physical controllers, users can interact with the system using their eyes, hands and voice.

Eye tracking effectively allows the user to look at an application or object to select it, while hand and finger movements can be used to perform actions. Voice commands provide another method of interacting with Meta's AI systems.

Virtual Reality Moves Into Entertainment and Work

Meta demonstrated a range of uses for the new glasses, including sporting events and concerts. The company says partnerships with ESPN, Major League Baseball, NBC Sports, TNT Sports and UFC will provide more than 100 immersive live sports events once the glasses launch.

The system is also intended to support gaming, with Meta saying more than 75 games will be available at launch that can be controlled using hand gestures rather than traditional controllers.

Another feature called VR Enhanced Cinema is intended to make films more immersive by extending elements of the movie beyond the conventional screen. Digital effects, three-dimensional visuals and spatial audio can be used to alter the virtual environment around the viewer.

The glasses are also being positioned as a potential workplace device. Users will be able to create virtual screens and keyboards while working at a physical desk. Meta says the system can connect to Mac and Windows computers, allowing users to bring their existing keyboard and mouse into the setup.

Unlike earlier virtual reality headsets that could obscure much of the surrounding environment, Meta's new glasses allow users to continue seeing their physical surroundings and desk while using virtual displays.

Meta's Vision Goes Beyond Replacing the Smartphone

Zuckerberg's comments at Connect underline the company's broader belief that wearable technology could eventually change the role smartphones play in everyday computing. Rather than carrying a device and repeatedly looking down at a screen, users could access digital services through products they are already wearing.

AI is central to that concept because an intelligent assistant can interpret spoken requests and provide information without requiring the user to navigate menus or applications manually. Cameras, microphones, speakers and displays can then provide different ways for the AI to interact with the user.

Meta's approach also depends on AI agents becoming capable of performing useful tasks rather than simply answering questions. Muse is intended to provide that missing layer by connecting artificial intelligence to the services people already use.

Zuckerberg Rejects Calls for a Broad AI Slowdown

The hardware announcements came alongside a clear statement from Zuckerberg about Meta's position in the debate over the future development of advanced AI.

Zuckerberg has distanced Meta from calls for companies to coordinate a slowdown in advanced AI development. His stated position is that individual companies should make their systems safe and put appropriate safeguards in place, rather than relying on a collective pause in development.

He has also argued that the benefits of advanced AI should be distributed widely rather than concentrated among a small number of organisations. In his view, AI should be used to give individuals greater capabilities, with creation and invention representing important uses of increasingly powerful systems.

That position places Meta within a continuing debate across the technology industry about how quickly artificial intelligence should advance and what safeguards should accompany increasingly autonomous systems.

Meta's Next Stage of AI Development

The announcements at Connect show that Meta is pursuing artificial intelligence on several fronts simultaneously. Muse represents the company's attempt to build a personal AI agent capable of taking action, while smart glasses provide a potential way for people to access that agent throughout the day.

The company's virtual reality glasses extend the same strategy into entertainment, gaming and workplace computing. Together, the products suggest that Meta sees AI not simply as software running inside existing devices, but as technology that could change how people interact with computers altogether.

There are still substantial questions around cost, privacy, security, reliability and consumer adoption. The $1,300 price announced for the new Meta VR Glasses, for example, puts the product into a very different category from conventional smart glasses, while the usefulness of AI agents will depend on how reliably they can complete tasks without creating new problems for their users.

Meta nevertheless appears determined to continue developing the technology. The company is betting that AI will become increasingly personal, increasingly capable of taking action and increasingly accessible through devices people wear rather than devices they hold.

With Muse being expanded across Meta's software and wearable ecosystem, and with new generations of glasses and virtual reality products arriving, the company is now attempting to turn its long-term vision of wearable AI into a practical part of everyday computing.