Tyler, The Creator is not on board with Ray-Ban Meta AI glasses at all.
In a post on his Instagram Stories, Tyler shared an article from Wired documenting the rise in nefarious uses of the wearable technology, which can record video from the wearer’s point of view. “BOOOOOOOOOO!!!” Tyler wrote alongside a link to a Wired Instagram post about the article. “Anyone who uses these glasses is a real weirdo. These shits need to be banned. Ray Ban Meta who ever, I will continue to ‘complain’ about these.”
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been pushing the Meta Ray-Ban glasses big-time, and it has become a convenient way to take videos, especially for content creators. The glasses, built in partnership with Ray-Ban parent company EssilorLuxottica, first launched in 2021 and have dominated the smart glasses market so far. As reported by CNBC, Meta recently announced a new set of Meta Ray-Ban glasses that will retail for $299, the cheapest pair to date.
The increase in adoption rates for smart glasses has raised some concerns among critics, especially because of the hidden surveillance aspect of the technology. Tyler has already been outspoken about how much he doesn’t like being filmed by strangers in public, critiquing a post earlier this year that showed surveillance footage of him browsing a bookstore in Mexico City.
"So annoying. Just existing, living, mind your biz and next thing u know it’s security camera footage of you just existing uploaded so folks can either prove they saw you or get some engagement they crave," he wrote of the footage, which was shared without his consent. "I understand the excitement but the behavior is going to morph into everyone having footage or anything involving them uploaded for content."
He’s also been outspoken about the increase in data centers across the country, recently sharing a post about a South DeKalb neighborhood’s fight against a proposed data center hub. "Again, death to all data centers," Tyler wrote on his Instagram Stories. "The growth of water contamination is insane. Shocked how this is even a convo but of course every official looks out for their own pocket linings."
