Kylie Jenner may be the face of Meta’s AI glasses, but pop star Lorde is clearly not impressed.
While performing at the Mad Cool Festival in Madrid last week, Lorde expressed her skepticism regarding the new technology, which experts have labeled as a potential privacy concern.
“In our increasingly complex world, it’s becoming more challenging to discern what is real,” Lorde shared with the crowd. “You can’t tell if someone is just wearing sunglasses or those controversial [AI glasses]. I just want to say, for the record, forget the glasses. Don’t buy the glasses. They’re not appealing.”
This isn’t the first time Lorde has voiced her disdain for technology; she previously mentioned tossing her phone into the ocean, but this sentiment feels more elevated.
Her remarks might have been prompted by the presence of Ray-Ban, a festival sponsor collaborating with Meta on the AI glasses. Interestingly, she performed right before Jennie, an ambassador for the Ray-Ban x Meta collection.
Lorde’s concerns aren’t isolated. Smart glasses equipped with cameras and AI have been reported as tools for harassment and other malicious activities. Despite Meta’s claims of prioritizing privacy through features like an obvious recording light, the company is currently under scrutiny and faces numerous lawsuits related to privacy issues. One lawsuit, for instance, claims that Kenyan workers were required to view disturbing footage gathered by the glasses to train Meta’s AI—though Meta has yet to provide a detailed response to that allegation.
Nonetheless, this controversy hasn’t impeded the strong sales of the smart glasses. EssilorLuxottica, the producer of Ray-Ban, revealed that over 7 million Meta AI glasses were sold in 2025, a figure significantly higher than the combined total of approximately 2 million units sold in 2023 and 2024. The success of Ray-Ban Meta glasses has propelled Meta to expand its offerings in this category.
If privacy issues aren’t enough to make consumers reconsider, perhaps the lack of style will. As Lorde succinctly put it, they’re simply “not appealing.”
Lorde concluded that embracing the present moment, now that “is appealing.”
