AI News Flash: Lorde publicly blasted Meta AI glasses during her performance at Madrid’s Mad Cool Festival, declaring ‘F*** the glasses, don’t buy them, they’re not sexy at all.’ She said it’s getting harder to tell what’s real in today’s world — you can’t even tell if someone is wearing regular sunglasses or smart glasses with built-in cameras and AI features. Her comments are especially striking because the festival’s sponsor, Ray-Ban, is the very brand that partnered with Meta to launch these smart glasses, and the artist who took the stage right after Lorde — Jennie — is the face of Ray-Ban x Meta smart glasses. Lorde isn’t the only one raising privacy concerns; these camera-equipped AI glasses have already been used for harassment and extortion. Meta insists it takes privacy seriously and has safety features like recording indicator lights, but it’s currently facing multiple privacy lawsuits, including one alleging that contract workers in Kenya were forced to watch violent footage recorded by the glasses to help train Meta’s AI models (Meta has not publicly responded to that allegation). Despite the controversy, sales haven’t been affected at all: eyewear maker EssilorLuxottica reported selling over 7 million pairs of Meta AI glasses in 2025 — more than triple the roughly 2 million pairs sold in 2023 and 2024 combined. Those impressive numbers have Meta continuing to expand the product line.