Meta’s CTO explained the technical reasons why Key Connect Keynote Live Demos failed.
If you missed it: At the Connect 2025 main keynote on Wednesday, two live-on-stage demos of Meta’s biggest smart glasses features failed.
In both cases, Mark Zuckerberg denounced the meeting’s Wi-Fi. But now, in the Instagram Ask-Me-Anything session, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth offers a different technical explanation for what caused each of the obstacles.
Ray-Ban Metal Live AI Demo Disorder.
The first obstacle was a demo of the live AI feature.
Available in all Meta AI-enabled glasses in the US and Canada, live AI can have continuous conversations with Meta AI without continuing to say “Hey Meta,” and AI gets a continuous stream of what you’re watching.
I tried live AI while in the US and can see that it works as described. But it was definitely not a Connect demo.
Influencer chef Jack Mancuso, who was in the kitchen on Meta’s campus, was able to start the session by saying, “Hey Meta, start live AI.” Meta AI replied, “I love the setup here with soy sauce and other ingredients.” However, when Mankuso asked what to do first to make a Korean-style steak sauce for the sandwich, Meta AI simply kept repeating, “You’ve already combined the basic ingredients.”
According to Bosworth, when Mancuso said “Hey Meta, we’re starting Live AI,” it was broadcast on speakers at the venue, and therefore started live AI on all Ray-Ban Meta in the building. Also, as Meta was rerouting campus live traffic to the development server, traffic from all these smart glasses overwhelmed the server to theoretically separate it and make sure the demo was working.
Bosworth does not explain why this has repeatedly thought that the material has already been mixed. The charity explanation is that the failed server has begun providing cached responses from rehearsals. Or perhaps Meta has revealed that he partially forged the demonstration.
Of course, what prevents this from happening at all is that Meta implements voice authentication. Alexa, Google, and Siri all just ran sensitive commands when they recognized your unique voice, but Meta AI doesn’t have that functionality yet.
Metaray-Ban Display Video Call Demo Failed.
Another major Connect demo failure occurred when Mark Zuckerberg, wearing Metaray-Ban display glasses and a metalneural band, tried to answer an in-place whatsapp video call from Bosworth.
In theory, he could have accepted the phone and watched the caller’s camera stream on the head-up display. And several mainstream tech news outlets, including The Verge, were trying out the video call feature and confirmed it worked. But that wasn’t the case at the demonstration.
Instead, Zuckerberg was unable to accept Bosworth’s next call for four consecutive times, despite the announcements made by Meta AI. The CEO looked visibly annoyed.
According to Bosworth, what happened here was that the display fell asleep at the exact time when the incoming call notification notification was received, causing a racial state in the system software, preventing that call or future calls from occurring. Bosworth says that despite running “100 video call tests,” Meta never encountered the bug.
“That’s a terrible, terrible place where that bug appears,” Bosworth said, saying it’s now fixed.
There are mixed reactions to Connect Live Demo disorders. While many people are engaged in Shaden Fluid, which is expected to see the elimination of Meta’s CEO, others see Meta’s approach, which they see as a refreshing contrast to Tim Cook’s apple’s highly produced infomercial style events.
Plus, many within the tech industry are sympathetic to Zuckerberg’s light-like form, knowing how cursed pre-release tech demos are often. This is rarely the same problem with the delivery product.
During his AMA session, Bosworth was also asked if he thought live demos were the right approach. Here’s how he answered:
“I don’t know if people really think there’s a risk. This means seriously and again great. And I’m going to read the articles and the press and the people sitting with their glasses, who are critics, on multiple occasions.
They put them on, used them, and they tell you it’s legal and it works well. So people are actually paying our audience – I think the audience understands both in the room and in the broadcast. Why aren’t live demos representing real-world scenarios?
You usually have 2500 radios, 3000 radios, not all in a room at the same time on different devices. People understand that. So, again, obviously I didn’t want to do that. But it wasn’t that bad, and I thought it was great, and I think people trust us and know the truest of the product, and you can read reviews about it and try it for yourself if you’re not sure.”
The Metaray-Ban Display is official and includes a $800 metaneural band
Metaray-Ban display glasses are official after months of rumors and last minute leaks, and after a price of $800 including metaleneural bands.
Starting September 30th, Meta Ray-Ban displays will be available for demonstrations at select physical US retailers, including Best Buy, Lenscrafters and Ray-Ban stores. If you are in the US, you don’t need to take Bosworth with you in his words – you can head to the store and try it yourself.
