In a valiant effort to promote Meta's new Smart Glasses Collection with Ray-Ban, Mark Zuckerberg has done the unthinkable: He has learned to braid his daughter's hair with the help of AI.
In a clip posted to Instagram, Zuckerberg films the back of his daughter's head using the video recording feature embedded within the smart glasses he's wearing. He says "Hey Meta, how do you make a braid?" and a little voice walks him through three steps: brush the hair, separate it into three parts, cross the right section over the middle, then the left, and continue.
He ties the end of the braid with such difficulty that it's clear he's never done his girls' hair before (Zuckerberg has three daughters). As a final step, he asks the glasses to take a photo of his handiwork and send it to Priscilla, his wife, who is presumably busy co-running the couple's charitable organization, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
If the video is supposed to show users how Meta's Smart Glasses can be used in their everyday lives, it doesn't quite succeed. Meta AI doesn't appear any more useful or convenient than existing digital assistants like Siri and Alexa.
And the picture Zuckerberg sent to his wife could have easily been taken with a phone and sent via text message in just a few more seconds, without the hand-free help of the glasses.
A more effective example of the Smart Glasses' unique appeal might look like this: Zuckerberg is baking in the kitchen as his infant daughter naps nearby. He avoids calling out to Alexa or Siri by quietly asking Meta AI for help with ingredient measurement. Success! The baby is still asleep.
As he hand-scoops sticky cookie dough onto a baking sheet, Zuckerberg asks his Smart Glasses to take a photo of the dollops and send it to Priscilla with the message, "Are these the right size?" While the cookies bake in the oven, Zuckerberg asks the glasses to play music from Spotify. The glasses' open design enables him to listen to music without waking the baby, or missing her hungry cries when she wakes up.
In a demo like that, the glasses may sound kind of cool and useful. But Zuckerberg's video makes them seem like a gadget your dad orders off Amazon to play with in his retirement. A very #girldad move, if you ask us.
