Meta may use data from RayBan glasses to train artificial intelligence

The RayBan Meta glasses have a front-facing camera that not only activates when you take a photo, but also captures images while using AI commands to view the environment. This means that smart glasses collect a large number of photos. However, Meta makes no commitment to keep these images private; It is also unclear whether it uses these images to train artificial intelligence models or not.

A TechCrunch media reporter recently asked Meta if it plans to train AI models through images of Ray-Ban Meta users. But this company has not given a clear answer to this question.

Meta’s evasion of response to RayBan Eyewear users’ data use

In an interview with TechCrunch, Anuj Kumar, a senior manager at Meta who works on artificial intelligence wearables, said:

“We don’t talk about it publicly.”

“Mimi Huggins”, the spokesperson of Meta, who was also present in this conversation, completed Kumar’s words without confirming or denying this incident.

“This is not something we share with organizations and sources outside the company.”

Part of the reason this is a concern is because of the Ray-Ban Meta’s new AI feature, which takes a lot of photos. It was recently reported that Meta plans to introduce a new video feature for Ray-Ban sunglasses as well. When this feature is activated, the smart glasses feed a set of images (essentially, live video) to a multimodal artificial intelligence model so that it can respond to the user based on their surroundings.

Wearing Ray-Ban Meta glasses also means you have a camera on your face; Therefore, many people next to you may feel that their privacy has been ignored by seeing such glasses.

Meta has already announced that it trains its AI models with public Instagram and Facebook posts. The company believes that this is “publicly available data”. The company and other tech companies have come up with a very broad definition of what is and isn’t publicly available for AI training.

However, the world that the user looks at through smart glasses is not “publicly available”. But we can’t say for sure if Meta is training its AI models with videos and photos taken by Ray-Ban sunglasses.