Howdy 👋🏾. Last week was jam-packed, and it called for plenty of popcorn. Meta kicked off its Meta Connect developer conference with exciting new products (more on that later). In the backdrop, Mira Murati, CTO of OpenAI, resigned nearly a year after briefly stepping in as CEO when Sam Altman was ousted. Her departure is significant and part of a broader exodus at OpenAI, with two other top executives resigning. In recent years, OpenAI has lost some of its top talent, leading to the creation of competitor companies like Anthropic and Safe Superintelligence. These companies were founded by individuals who disagree with OpenAI’s approach to safety. This also comes as OpenAI prepares to shift its business model from a non-profit to a full-blown for-profit unicorn.

Another major story this week is the WordPress vs. WP Engine drama. Matt Mullenweg, the creator of WordPress, fired a nuclear shot at WP Engine, accusing the company of profiting massively from the open-source WordPress platform without contributing fairly to its development or negotiating a deal to use the WordPress trademark (recent drips of information show that Mullenweg asked for 8% of WP Engine’s gross revenue). The tension escalated with the WordPress Foundation blocking access to WordPress.org preventing access to plugins, themes, and core updates for WP Engine’s sites. This has already caused several sites to break, and could disrupt security patching and functionality for hundreds of WP Engine users. WordPress powers 40% of websites, and this very vocal battle could be a crucial point in the content management system’s life.

In the same week, The Meta Connect event unveiled the Meta Quest 3S, a pair of smart glasses, and gave us a peek at the future of AR.

Augmented Reality is the Future

I was floored when Google introduced Google Glass. The intro video felt like a glimpse into the future—a pair of glasses with a built-in camera, microphone, and a mini display that understood the world around us. Google’s vision was exciting, but the reality didn’t live up to the hype. The hardware was clunky, especially on top of my glasses, and the display was faint.

Ten years later, we’re seeing the market slowly evolve. Meta bought Oculus, Apple introduced Apple Vision Pro, and Magic Leap made a brief appearance. But AR still feels like it’s waiting for that breakout moment. Enter Orion, Meta’s next step forward in AR technology, which aims to finally deliver the promise Google Glass teased years ago.

Meta’s new glasses might not be ready for consumers just yet (rumors suggest they cost $10k), but they showcase how close we are to realizing the future of AR. As Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s CTO, said: “These things happen slowly, and then all at once.”

Unlike the Meta Quest or Apple Vision Pro, which are bulky VR headsets, Oasis is a pair of glasses with a built-in hologram screen. The glasses are bulkier than a normal pair of frames but still look like thick glasses. In the device are multiple cameras that allow the device to track hand movement and see the outside world, as well as cameras that track eye movement. The device includes a neuro wrist strap that appears to function similarly to Apple’s watch, tracking wrist movement and hand movements allowing you to control the device or scroll through screens by tapping your fingers together or moving your thumb over your index finger. To keep the device so small it works with an external pack that includes lots of the smarts.

One of the key innovations in Meta’s new glasses is the use of Silicon Carbide—a cutting-edge material that allows for brighter, more efficient displays while significantly reducing heat generation. What makes Silicon Carbide special is its ability to handle higher voltages and temperatures compared to traditional materials like silicon. This enables Meta to shrink the components inside the glasses, making the device smaller, lighter, and more comfortable to wear. However, due to the current low production yields, it’s still an expensive material to use, which drives up the cost of the device

Despite the high price and has not yet shipped, Orion doesn’t appear to be vaporware. Early reviewers from the press who demoed the device described it as truly revolutionary, and Meta has made it clear they’re committed to refining and bringing this product to market.

Augmented Reality, is unquestionably the future. As this technology evolves we may still use keyboards and screens, but for many glasses or in the future contacts will change how we interact with the world. I think the most stark example is how Apple’s AirPods can limit dangerous or loud sounds, or provide warnings if a doorbell or fire alarm sounds while listening to music. AR glasses will begin to change the environments in front of us with contextual information as we walk, and allow us to use conversational AI to ask complex questions or perform tasks.

Meta Expands Its Open-Source AI Offerings

Mark Zuckerberg sees AI as playing a big role in augmented reality, with voice and conversational AI becoming one of the key ways we communicate with AI assistants. The suprisingly successful and wonderful Meta Ray-Ban glasses are a great example of a set of frames that connects with a conversational AI to perform all types of tasks.

Meta is expanding its conversational AI by deeply integrating its Llama AI engine into all of its products, and now adding a voice inflection similar to Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s Advanced Voice features to make conversations feel more fluid.

For lovers of Meta’s Open Source AI model Llama, announcements where light but the company did release a new Llama 3.2 Vision, which is a multi model that is capable of accepting input as a mix of text and images, but for the moment only outputs text. This vision ability will make it easier to build applications using their AI that can analyze the contents of a photo, or image versions of documents like PDFs or slide decks.

Ok, so now my thoughts on tech and things:

⚖️ A new California law restricts companies from creating AI replicas of individuals without permission, including digital avatars and voices, prompting questions about posthumous rights and the future of AI-driven legacies.

🚀 OpenAI DevDay Brings Real-Time API and More
This week’s OpenAI DevDay introduced the Realtime API, offering speech-to-speech agent capabilities with customizable voices, bringing us closer to agentic AI experiences with personalized data access using RAG.

🔌 Tesla’s Supercharger Network is A Game-Changer for Other EVs
Tesla’s Supercharger network is breathing new life into EV travel, even for non-Tesla owners like the Chevy Bolt. Reliable, fast charging is crucial for long-distance trips, and Tesla’s infrastructure remains a standout in an otherwise frustrating landscape.

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This week I had the pleasure of delivering a workshop in Washington DC on agentic AI for US Ignite and the Black Meta Agency. Attendees had a chance to sit through a hands on exploration in creating AI agents and using RAG to connect these agents with static data sources.

The rest of the month is set to be a busy one! I’m in Philly this weekend for BarCamp, and then headed back to DC to speak at DC Startup & Tech Week. I’m also super exciting to kick off the first of the rebooted World Trade Center Institutes’ AGILE Global Innovation Series as moderator, with an amazing panel of industry experts, all wrapping up the year in NYC at AI Summit.

Oct. 5	BarCamp Philly
Oct. 21	DC Startup & Tech Week
Nov. 7	World Trade Center Institute AGILE Global Innovation Series
Dec.12	AI Summit NYC
Jan. 7	CES

Be sure to register, and don’t forget to grab a copy of my new book, which is available for pre-order.

-jason

P.s. We all remember at some point a math teacher or professor saying in the future you won’t always have a calculator with you wherever you go. Well, yeah, we do, but in a strange reverse of the tables, the value of calculators in schools is that they don’t have the power of the Internet or the ability to use AI tools… well that was until some folks figured out how to bring OpenAI’s ChatGPT to a TI-84 calculator.