Sep 9, 2025 - Technology

Source: AI to take a back seat at Meta Connect

Ina Fried

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, wearing Orion augmented reality glasses during the 2024 Meta Connect event. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Expect consumer hardware rather than AI software to be the focus of the Meta Connect conference next week, according to a source familiar with the event.

Why it matters: Although Facebook's parent company is spending a literal fortune on its new superintelligence push, the announcements at next week's show will come largely from longer-established teams, including the Reality Labs unit responsible for the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses.

Zoom in: "Connect will be primarily focused on wearables and immersive experiences," the source said, adding that work from the new lab, including new consumer AI products, will come later.

As previously reported, the company is readying the first version of its smart glasses to include a display, albeit a more modest setup than the one that was included with the Orion prototype glasses shown at Connect last year.

Zoom out: The hardware focus is something of a return to the event's roots given that it began life as Oculus Connect, with a focus on virtual reality devices.

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Source: AI to take a back seat at Meta Connect

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