February 8, 2026
Sizzle or fizzle in the kitchen showdown
Cooking with Glasses
Meta's smart shades sizzle, fizzle, and split the crowd: future, privacy, or just use a tablet
TLDR: Meta’s Ray‑Ban smart glasses flubbed a live cooking demo, raising questions about privacy, usefulness, and who actually hears the AI. Commenters split between 'inevitable future' and 'just use a tablet,' with jokes about steamed-up lenses and a side debate over ethics and hype.
Meta’s Ray‑Ban AR glasses had a messy live cooking demo, but the real spice is in the comments. The crowd is wildly split: futurists cheer that, yes, this is where we’re headed, citing MKBHD and The Verge praising the hardware, while skeptics roast the software and the social awkwardness of whispering to an AI while sautéing onions. One camp is dreaming of hands-free recipes and real-time captions for accessibility; another is begging us to put the tablet on the counter and stop overengineering dinner. Privacy alarms blare as people imagine silent screen time hidden in your glasses—great in demos, creepy at the table. And that “broadcast what I see and hear” stage mode? Commenters called it both clever and deeply weird.
Then it got messier: a side-quest ethics fight broke out when the article compared AR’s potential to crypto’s double-edged impact. One user threw the “51:49 if it saves dissidents” gauntlet, while others argued the likely reality is distraction and surveillance rather than social play. The top meme? A user expecting tips to keep lenses from steaming up. Meanwhile, kitchen drama fantasies erupt: couples cooking with dueling AIs, mystery instructions only one partner can hear, and the eternal question—open protocol or brand lock-in. Bon appétit, discourse.
Key Points
- •The article examines Meta’s Ray-Ban AR glasses after a failed onstage cooking demo that broadcast presenters’ audio and video.
- •Cited reviews (The Verge and MKBHD) praise hardware improvements while software is characterized as weak.
- •MKBHD’s review notes a display that is invisible to bystanders; both he and Victoria Song raise privacy and distraction concerns.
- •The author questions how voice-guided AR would function in shared settings, including audio sharing, multi-user coordination, and permissioned access.
- •Potential benefits include accessibility features like real-time translation/captioning; broader social implications are compared to crypto’s trade-offs.