Lorde says AI glasses are “not sexy”
Quick Answer
Pop star Lorde criticized Meta's AI glasses at the Mad Cool Festival, calling them 'not sexy' and raising concerns about privacy issues.
Quick Take
Pop star Lorde criticized Meta's AI glasses at the Mad Cool Festival, calling them 'not sexy' and raising concerns about privacy issues. Despite these concerns, Meta's smart glasses have sold over 7 million units in 2025, significantly up from 2 million in 2023 and 2024 combined.
Key Points
- Lorde publicly denounced Meta's AI glasses during her performance in Madrid.
- She emphasized the difficulty in distinguishing reality with AI glasses in public.
- Meta's AI glasses have faced multiple privacy violation lawsuits and investigations.
- Sales of Meta's AI glasses surged to over 7 million units in 2025.
- Lorde's comments reflect broader concerns about privacy and technology trends.
📖 Reader Mode
~3 min readWhile Kylie Jenner serves as a human billboard for Meta’s AI glasses, pop star Lorde isn’t buying it.
During a set at the Mad Cool Festival in Madrid last week, Lorde had some choice words about the new technology, which many security experts have deemed a privacy nightmare.
“Increasingly in our world, it gets harder and harder to know what is real,” Lorde told the audience. “You don’t know if someone is wearing sunglasses, or if they’re wearing those f–ed up, f–ing [AI glasses]. Can I just say, for the record, f— the glasses. Don’t get the glasses. Not sexy.”
Lorde has written before about throwing her phone into the ocean, but this was next level.
Lorde was possibly moved to comment on the latest trends in tech because Ray-Ban, a sponsor of the festival, partners with Meta to make AI glasses. Lorde also performed immediately before the singer Jennie, who is an ambassador for Ray-Ban x Meta’s smart glasses line.
— Lorde fix 🩻🧬⛓️ (@Lorde_fix) July 10, 2026"Increasingly in our world it gets harder and harder to know what is real. You don’t know if someone is wearing sunglasses or if they’re wearing those fucked up fucking.… Can I just say, for the record, 'Fuck the Glasses'. Don’t get the glasses. Not sexy"
– @lorde in Madrid. 💯 pic.twitter.com/NylMCifF66
Lorde isn’t alone in raising concerns. Smart glasses, which come with cameras and AI features, have been used as tools for harassment and extortion. Meta, the most popular smart glasses maker, has said it takes privacy seriously and builds in safeguards like a visible recording light, but the company is facing many investigations and lawsuits alleging privacy violations. One lawsuit alleges that Kenyan contract workers were made to watch graphic videos obtained with the glasses to help train Meta’s AI. (Meta hasn’t publicly detailed its response to that specific claim.)
None of this has stopped the product from strong sales. EssilorLuxottica, the Ray-Ban maker, said it sold more than 7 million Meta AI glasses in 2025 — more than triple the roughly 2 million units it sold in 2023 and 2024 combined. Ray-Ban Meta glasses have been such a hit in the smart-glasses category that an emboldened Meta keeps expanding the lineup.
But hey, if privacy doesn’t make people think twice about the glasses, maybe vanity will. Lorde nails it pretty concisely with her declaration that they’re simply “not sexy.”
The here and now, she added, now that “is sexy.”
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Amanda Silberling is a senior writer at TechCrunch covering the intersection of technology and culture. She has also written for publications like Polygon, MTV, the Kenyon Review, NPR, and Business Insider. She is the co-host of Wow If True, a podcast about internet culture, with science fiction author Isabel J. Kim. Prior to joining TechCrunch, she worked as a grassroots organizer, museum educator, and film festival coordinator. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and served as a Princeton in Asia Fellow in Laos.
You can contact or verify outreach from Amanda by emailing amanda@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at @amanda.100 on Signal.
— Originally published at techcrunch.com
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