An activist group known as Everyone Hates Elon (EHE) has launched a series of guerilla bus stop advertisements in the UK to criticize Meta's new AI-powered smart glasses, drawing parallels to the covert surveillance capabilities highlighted in John Carpenter's 1988 film, They Live.
One prominent advertisement utilizes a lenticular design featuring a modified image of Kylie Jenner from her recent Meta AI collaboration. When viewed from different angles, the image transforms, mirroring the iconic reveal in They Live, with Jenner appearing to broadcast the message "Meta: We're always Watching." This ad specifically appeared near Meta's London headquarters.
Another ad from the campaign targets the wearable technology directly, describing Meta's AI glasses as "The biggest advance in pervert technology since the trenchcoat." These stunts aim to draw attention to concerns surrounding Meta's AI glasses, particularly their potential for unobtrusive recording.
Recent reports indicate Meta is prototyping 'super sensing' AI glasses designed to continuously record video and audio. Unlike current models that feature an LED indicator when recording, these prototypes reportedly lack such a visible cue. This has raised privacy concerns, as individuals in the vicinity may not be aware they are being recorded.
While Meta has explored systems where recorded footage is not retained and metadata is fed directly to AI models to mitigate privacy issues, the group remains skeptical. Previous revelations detailed how human contractors reviewed footage captured by Meta's AI glasses. Furthermore, security researchers have demonstrated that AI models can be manipulated to reveal personal user data through methods like "adversarial poetry" or by exploiting mathematical vulnerabilities. These instances fuel EHE's apprehension about trusting sensitive personal information to AI systems, even with proposed privacy safeguards.