At Meta Connect 2025, the company’s biggest event of the year, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled three new smart glasses: the second-generation Ray-Ban Meta, the Meta Ray-Ban Display and wristband controller, and the Oakley Meta Vanguard.
Meta says it has sold 2 million of the first-generation Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, and earlier this year, Meta unveiled its latest AI-powered smart glasses with Oakley, which were designed for athletes. Silicon Valley is leaning heavily into AI wearables, and Meta seems to be one of the companies leading the charge.
With Meta looking to regain its footing in the AI race and sell more hardware, the company had a lot at stake during Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Connect 2025 keynote. Overall, Meta showcased some pretty impressive technology — the Meta Neural Band, the wristband controller that comes with the Meta Ray-Ban Display, is a particular highlight.
And yet, in a twist that felt reminiscent of HBO’s “Silicon Valley,” Zuckerberg’s demo of the AI capabilities on the Ray-Ban Metas failed. Whoops!
While sharing a live video feed of the cooking content creator Jack Mancuso at Meta HQ, Zuckerberg asked the chef to demonstrate how his Ray-Ban Meta glasses could help him whip up a Korean-inspired steak sauce.
Jack Mancuso at Meta Connect.Image Credits:Meta
“I love the setup you have here, with soy sauce and other ingredients. How can I help?” asked the chipper Meta AI voice.
Mancuso asked for a recipe for a Korean-inspired steak sauce, and the AI voice began to list the ingredients that he would need — but Mancuso knows he needs to keep the demo succinct, so he interrupts and asks, “What do I do first?”
Techcrunch event
San Francisco
|
October 27-29, 2025
After a moment of silence that dragged a bit too long, Mancuso repeated, “What do I do first?”
“You’ve already combined the base ingredients, so now grate a pear to add to the sauce,” the AI said. But he had not yet combined the base ingredients, because he had not started making the recipe, hence the question of what to do first.
Mancuso asked the same question again, and the AI gave the same response. The audience laughed.
“I think the Wi-Fi might be messed up — back to you, Mark!” Mancuso said.
“You know what? It’s all good. The irony of the whole thing is that you spend years making the technology, and then the Wi-Fi of the day kind of … catches you,” Zuckerberg said. “Anyway, we’ll go check out what he made later.”
The whole interaction was a bit awkward, especially since the issue did not seem to be with the Wi-Fi. But even when things are going according to plan, these presentations can feel a bit hokey … like the end of the keynote, when Zuckerberg and Diplo quite literally ran into the sunset together, wearing their Meta Oakley Vanguards. It had to be a busy day for Mark, so maybe he just needed an excuse to build some cardio into his schedule.
Image Credits:Meta
Meta unveiled the second generation of its Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which first debuted in 2023. This spruced-up model features double the battery life of its predecessor, now lasting up to eight hours of mixed use on one charge. The second-generation glasses also support ultra HD 3K video recording, which the company says is twice as sharp as the last model.
Meta’s smart glasses are also getting some new features with the release of the second-generation Ray-Ban Metas, like conversation focus, which will be available on the Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta HSTN glasses.
Image Credits:Meta
“If you’re eating at a hot new restaurant, commuting on the train, or catching your favorite DJ’s latest set, conversation focus uses your AI glasses’ open-ear speakers to amplify the voice of the person you’re talking to,” Met …