Meta unveils $1,299 VR glasses and AI agent amid privacy lawsuits

Meta announced a suite of AI-powered wearables at its annual conference Wednesday, including $1,299 virtual reality glasses and a new AI agent called Muse, even as the company faces more than 70 lawsuits alleging privacy violations with its smart glasses technology.

The announcements at Meta's Menlo Park campus come at a particularly sensitive moment for the company. One lawsuit filed this year alleges that intimate images captured by smart glasses were exposed to contract workers training AI systems. Meta has denied the allegations and says it filters data to remove identifying information.

New hardware lineup

The product releases include virtual reality glasses for watching movies, gaming, and browsing the internet, set to launch in spring 2027. At 100 grams—roughly the weight of a deck of cards—the VR glasses are lighter than Meta's Quest headsets and significantly cheaper than Apple's $3,699 Vision Pro.

Meta also unveiled a new lineup of smart glasses, including a $349 model without cameras, addressing some privacy concerns. The company plans to add its Muse AI agent to smart glasses, enabling users to book appointments and find flights. A keychain version of the AI gadget is in development for December release.

The Muse app has already topped Apple's charts for free productivity apps, surpassing ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Anthropic's Claude. However, Amazon has blocked Muse from shopping on its e-commerce platform.

Privacy protections and pushback

CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced new privacy protections that would prevent anyone, including Meta itself, from accessing user data when certain AI features are active on the glasses. He argued that distributing AI technology widely with "the right checks and balances" is safer than concentrating it among a few companies.

The company has faced sustained criticism over what some call "pervert glasses"—smart eyewear that buyers have modified to secretly record people. Meta says Muse includes privacy protections and cannot see passwords or payment methods.

Financial stakes

Meta's Reality Labs division, which produces wearable devices, lost $4.6 billion in the second quarter of 2026. However, the parent company reported net income of $15.8 billion during the same period, giving it substantial resources to continue experimenting with new hardware despite the losses.

The company makes most of its revenue from advertising but has invested heavily in AI hardware and data centers as it competes with tech giants like Apple in the wearables market.

Why it matters

Meta's aggressive push into AI-powered wearables tests whether consumers will accept always-on cameras and AI agents in their daily lives, even as privacy concerns intensify. The company's ability to weather ongoing lawsuits while expanding its hardware ecosystem could determine whether ambient computing becomes mainstream or remains a niche technology hampered by surveillance fears. With California Governor Gavin Newsom recently ordering expanded AI oversight and development of a "kill switch" for AI models, Meta's approach of rapid deployment with added privacy features represents a bet that self-regulation can outpace government intervention.

Zuckerberg said Meta delayed Muse's release "for several months to focus on safety and security," though former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon's recent resignation and warning that AI "could kill us all by the end of the decade" has amplified concerns about the pace of AI development.

These details were first reported by the Los Angeles Times.