00:00Well, let's get more on this. Will Gaia is a technology journalist.
00:03Will, welcome to the programme. We've got the CEO's take. What's your take?
00:07Will everyone be wearing AI glasses in a few years' time?
00:10I think he might be a bit ambitious to say we're all going to have them,
00:14but a growing number of us definitely will.
00:16We've seen, you know, shipments grow massively over the last year.
00:20Meta have just launched their latest series of glasses.
00:23You've already talked about Apple's version coming.
00:25I think they're a lot easier to use and a lot more sensible than virtual reality headsets,
00:32the big headsets we were supposed to put over our heads, cause us headaches and those things.
00:36So I think more of us will want something that looks similar to a normal pair of glasses.
00:40Ironically, I have a pair of smart glasses, but the battery's flat, so I'm using my normal ones right now.
00:46One concern that doesn't seem to be going away is privacy,
00:49particularly with these reports of these new Meta glasses that could be on all day.
00:53How do companies balance privacy concerns with innovation?
00:57This is the challenge.
00:59The glasses are being made for the purpose that best suits the technology,
01:03but that doesn't stop them being used by people behaving in a bad fashion.
01:08And that's the challenge with all of these things.
01:11For example, Meta's current generation of glasses have a little green light showing when the camera's running on them,
01:16but people have worked out ways of covering over those green lights,
01:21and that's a big concern about privacy.
01:23So we're seeing a lot of that happening.
01:26China's share of the smart glass market is growing.
01:28How important do you think Chinese companies will be to new technologies in this sector?
01:33Well, intriguingly, they were there first.
01:35They were there before Meta, and they're there before other Western companies.
01:40So lots of the companies leading the way and innovating with exciting new technology in this space
01:45and perhaps doing some of the most innovative things are those Chinese companies.
01:49And I think we're going to see more of them as more people switch away just from Meta's version of
01:54the glasses.
01:55The idea of glasses without the camera but the connection to the smartphone
01:58will also be appealing to a number of people who don't want to be seen as creepy
02:02or using cameras without people's permission.
02:05So I think those camera-less glasses will become increasingly popular too.
02:09How do you see the market developing over the next decade,
02:12and what other new features could we potentially see?
02:15Well, we're going to see them get more and more like a normal pair of glasses.
02:18The frame's getting less thick, them looking more like a normal pair of glasses,
02:22so you wouldn't notice somebody necessarily wearing them.
02:25I think we're going to see a massive advance in screen display technology,
02:30which means you'll be able to overlay video over your vision through the glasses.
02:34And just making them smaller, the batteries lasting longer,
02:37I think we're going to see a lot of improvements in those areas
02:40because it seems to be a really fast-growing market now.
02:43And with Apple coming to it next year, lots of companies will want to get there
02:46and make their mark first.
02:49Will Guy at Technology Journalist, thank you very much for your insights,
02:52and back to you, Jeff.
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