Snap to launch smart glasses for users in 2026 in challenge to Meta
Snap will launch its first-ever smart glasses for all consumers next year, ratcheting up competition with bigger rival Meta in the
wearable technology market
.
The augmented reality smart glasses, called Specs, will be lightweight, the social media company said on Tuesday.
Long known for its messaging app Snapchat and animated filters, Snap has been doubling down on AR, which can overlay digital effects onto photos or videos of real-life surroundings through a camera or lens.
Integrating technology into wearable products can open up new lucrative markets and diversify revenue streams for Snap amid an uncertain digital ad market due to changing U.S. trade policies.
The company had launched its 5th generation of Spectacles glasses in September, but these were only available to developers.
The company has invested more than $3 billion over 11 years developing its
augmented reality glasses
, Snap co-founder and CEO
Evan Spiegel
said at the Augmented World Expo 2025 on Tuesday.
"Before Snapchat had chat, we were building glasses."
The popularity of Meta's Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses developed in partnership with EssilorLuxottica have prompted companies such Google to explore similar investments.
Meta continues to add AI features to its glasses to attract more consumers.
Snap said it would partner with augmented reality and geospatial technology platform Niantic Spatial to enhance the Lens Studio, which is an application used by creators to design, animate and publish AR lenses for Snapchat camera, and Specs.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NDTV
6 hours ago
- NDTV
ChatGPT Co-Creator Shengjia Zhao Joins Meta As Chief Scientist Of Superintelligence Lab
Meta Platforms has appointed Shengjia Zhao, co-creator of ChatGPT, as chief scientist of its Superintelligence Lab, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Friday, as the company accelerates its push into advanced AI. "In this role, Shengjia will set the research agenda and scientific direction for our new lab working directly with me and Alex," Zuckerberg wrote in a Threads post, referring to Meta's Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, who Zuckerberg hired from startup Scale AI when Meta took a big stake in it. Zhao, a former research scientist at OpenAI, co-created ChatGPT, GPT-4 and several of OpenAI's mini models, including 4.1 and o3. He is among several researchers who have moved from OpenAI to Meta in recent weeks, part of a broader talent arms race as Zuckerberg aggressively hires from rivals to close the gap in advanced AI. Meta has been offering some of Silicon Valley's most lucrative pay packages and striking startup deals to attract top researchers, a strategy that follows the underwhelming performance of its Llama 4 model. Meta launched the Superintelligence Lab recently to consolidate work on its Llama models and long‑term artificial general intelligence ambitions. Zhao is a co-founder of the lab, according to the Threads post, which operates separately from FAIR, Meta's established AI research division led by deep learning pioneer Yann LeCun. Zuckerberg has said Meta aims to build "full general intelligence" and release its work as open source - a strategy that has drawn both praise and concern within the AI community.
Time of India
6 hours ago
- Time of India
‘War Cry': Angry OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responds to Mark Zuckerberg 'poaching' OpenAI employees, says ...
It appears that the competition for top artificial intelligence talent is not going to end anytime soon. Now OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has issued a fiery response to Meta's aggressive hiring of top AI talent, calling the escalating competition a 'war cry' and declaring: 'Winning is fun. And I expect to win.' Speaking at a recent podcast interview, Altman addressed the claims that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was using "mafioso poaching style," in order to poach top AI talent from rival companies. 'I mean, you know, they want to get into the AI game. I understand it. So, and if he's going to do this, he needs to hire some people. So, bring it,' Altman said. Angry OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responds to Mark Zuckerberg 'poaching' Earlier this month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for the first publicly addressed the aggressive hiring by Meta. Replying with a brief "fine" and "good" when asked about the talent battle with Mark Zuckerberg, Altman said he hasn't spoken to the Meta CEO since the poaching began. "We have, obviously an incredibly talented team, and I think they really love what they are doing. Obviously, some people will go to different places," Altman told reporters at the Sun Valley conference. "There's a lot of excitement, I guess you could say, in the industry. But no, I think we feel fine." As reported by Benzinga, at a recent podcast appearance, Altman said Meta's hiring tactics resemble 'mafioso' moves'. I mean, you know, they want to get into the AI game. I understand it. So, and if he's going to do this, he needs to hire some people. So, bring it,' Altman said, adding, 'winning is fun. And I expect to win.' by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 75% off installation and replacement for LeafFilter LeafFilter Gutter Protection Get Rates Undo Meta's billion-dollar hiring spree The comments come after Meta successfully recruited at least seven OpenAI researchers for its new Meta Superintelligence Labs, including key contributors to OpenAI's reasoning models. Meta's Superintelligence Labs are headed by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang. Multiple online reports suggest that the Meta offered a compensation package of $20 million annually to reachers from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and Apple. Notable hires include Apple's former Foundation Models head Ruoming Pang and seven OpenAI researchers specializing in large language models. Recently, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth also acknowledged this rivalry. In a recent interview to CNBC, Andrew Bosworth, said, 'Sam neglected to mention that he's countering those offers,' referencing rumors of $100 million signing bonuses from OpenAI. With only around 2,000 researchers globally capable of building foundational AI models, the battle for talent is fierce—and increasingly public. AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
India Today
7 hours ago
- India Today
Google DeepMind CEO says Meta's AI talent war is rational because they are behind
The battle for the brightest minds in artificial intelligence has reached fever pitch, and Meta appears determined to buy its way to the top. The company has been aggressively poaching talent from rivals, including DeepMind, and dangling packages worth hundreds of DeepMind's cofounder and chief executive, Demis Hassabis, isn't particularly impressed. In an interview this week, he described Mark Zuckerberg's tactics as 'rational' but also suggested that those motivated purely by money are unlikely to be the ones shaping the future of this year, Meta quietly launched its Superintelligence Labs, a new project led by two high-profile Silicon Valley figures: former Scale AI boss Alexander Wang and Nat Friedman, who previously ran GitHub. The initiative was created to inject fresh life into Meta's AI ambitions after its Llama models, released in April, failed to set the world alight. Zuckerberg himself is said to have been personally involved in the talent hunt, reportedly luring some of the biggest names in AI research with stratospheric offers, packages as high as $200 million a year have been whispered about in industry results are already showing: researchers from OpenAI, Google and even Apple have resigned to join Meta, raising eyebrows across the tech however, believes the deeper motivation for top scientists goes beyond pay cheques. 'There's a strategy that Meta is taking right now,' he told Bloomberg. 'I think the people that are real believers in the mission of AGI and what it can do, and understand the consequences, both good and bad, are mostly doing it to be at the frontier, so they can help influence how that plays out and steward the technology safely into the world.'Meta, he noted, 'right now are not at the frontier. Maybe they'll manage to get back there. And it's probably rational, what they're doing from their perspective, because they're behind and they need to do something. But I think there are more important things than just money. Of course, one has to pay people market rates, and those continue to go up.'The DeepMind CEO also reflected on how dramatically the AI field has changed in just over a decade. 'We couldn't raise any money. I didn't pay myself for a couple of years,' he said of DeepMind's early years.'Now,' he added with a touch of incredulity, 'interns are being paid what we raised as our entire first seed round.' The comment underlines just how much the AI gold rush has distorted valuations and salaries as tech firms race to be first to artificial general intelligence (AGI).For Hassabis, the current frenzy of hiring and spending misses a fundamental point: the real prize lies in being at the cutting edge of research, not in cashing in. DeepMind, acquired by Google in 2014, has built a reputation for scientific breakthroughs, from mastering Go to solving protein structures, and Hassabis clearly sees that mission as more compelling than stock options meanwhile, is betting that an infusion of top-tier researchers will allow it to catch up in the generative AI race, and perhaps leapfrog rivals like OpenAI, Anthropic and, indeed, Zuckerberg's megabucks approach works remains to be seen. But for now, at least one leading voice in AI believes there's more to the future of the field than a blank cheque.- EndsMust Watch
