What happened at the keynote?
Meta’s Connect 2025 conference was meant to spotlight the company’s most ambitious leap in wearable AI to date. Instead, the event became memorable for the wrong reasons: multiple technical glitches during live demonstrations of its new smart glasses.
During the keynote, CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his team attempted to showcase the Ray-Ban Meta and Ray-Ban Display smart glasses, paired with neural wristbands that allow gesture-based control. But when the glasses stumbled mid-demo, the spotlight shifted from futuristic innovation to awkward improvisation.
The cooking demo gone wrong
To show off how AI could guide everyday activities, Zuckerberg introduced food creator Jack Mancuso on stage. Mancuso asked the glasses to help him prepare a Korean-inspired steak sauce.
- Instead of providing step-by-step instructions, the AI kept skipping ahead with prompts like: “You’ve already combined the base ingredients, so now grate the pear.”
- Mancuso tried to redirect it, but the system stubbornly repeated advanced steps.
- Eventually, Mancuso laughed it off, attributing the hiccup to a WiFi glitch.
Zuckerberg chimed in with a self-deprecating joke: “The irony of the whole thing is you spend years making technology and then the WiFi at the day catches you.” The audience responded with cheers, easing the tension.
The Ray-Ban Display glitch
Later, Zuckerberg attempted a live demo of the Ray-Ban Display glasses, the $799 flagship model with built-in screens. The plan was to place a live video call to Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth using hand gestures detected by the neural wristband.
But after several attempts, the call wouldn’t connect. Finally, Bosworth himself walked onto the stage and quipped: “This WiFi is brutal.” Zuckerberg added: “You practice these things like 100 times, and then you never know what’s going to happen.”
Bosworth admitted his team was frustrated but acknowledged the glitch underscored the authenticity of a live demo.
Why this matters for Meta
Meta has invested billions into Reality Labs, its division dedicated to AR, VR, and metaverse technologies. The company is banking on AI-powered eyewear as the “next major computing platform,” potentially replacing smartphones.
But technical slip-ups during a high-profile launch reinforce key challenges:
- Reliability: If smart glasses fail in controlled demos, consumers may question their everyday practicality.
- Adoption hurdles: Previous attempts at smart glasses, including Google Glass, stumbled due to usability and perception issues.
- Financial pressure: Reality Labs posted a $4.5 billion loss last quarter, raising concerns about whether these products can ever become profitable.
Still, Meta’s partnership with Ray-Ban and Oakley parent EssilorLuxottica gives it a fashionable edge that earlier tech-first attempts lacked.
How Zuckerberg reacted
While the mishaps were embarrassing, Zuckerberg’s lighthearted handling—joking about WiFi and acknowledging unpredictability—helped salvage the moment. Instead of defensiveness, his tone suggested transparency: demos fail, but the vision remains.
For Meta, that vision is clear: creating glasses that combine AI, holograms, and wearable computing to eventually free users from smartphones. But after Connect 2025, the company has another task—convincing the public that these devices work as promised, outside the stage lights.
TL;DR
Meta’s Connect 2025 event, meant to showcase its new AI-powered Ray-Ban glasses, was marred by live demo glitches. A cooking assistant feature misfired, and a live video call failed to connect. Zuckerberg and CTO Andrew Bosworth laughed it off, blaming WiFi. While the mishaps highlighted the risks of unveiling bleeding-edge tech, Meta insists smart glasses are still central to its post-smartphone future.
