What the Zuck?! Meta’s live AI demos fail spectacularly at Connect conference

Meta’s highly anticipated live AI demos at its annual Connect conference suffered multiple technical failures, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg visibly frustrated as both smart glasses demonstrations malfunctioned on stage. The embarrassing glitches undermined the company’s attempt to showcase what Zuckerberg called a “huge scientific leap” in neural band technology and AI-powered smart glasses.

What went wrong: Two separate live demonstrations failed spectacularly, leaving Zuckerberg scrambling to maintain composure in front of the audience.

• An Instagram influencer testing the Live AI feature on Meta’s smart glasses couldn’t get the system to properly respond to cooking questions, with the AI incorrectly assessing that ingredients had been combined when they hadn’t been touched.
• Zuckerberg’s own demo of the neural band technology—designed to replace keyboards and mice by interpreting wrist muscle movements—failed repeatedly when he tried to answer incoming WhatsApp calls by tapping his fingers.

The neural band struggles: Zuckerberg attempted five times to answer calls from Meta CTO Andrew “Boz” Bosworth using finger gestures, admitting defeat after each failure.

• “That’s too bad. I don’t know what happened,” Zuckerberg said after the first failed attempt.
• After multiple failures, he concluded: “I don’t know what to tell you guys. We’re just going to go to the next thing, and I hope that will work.”
• The technology did eventually work when Zuckerberg used it to pull up a song on Spotify.

Technical limitations acknowledged: Before the demos began, Zuckerberg warned that the company was still working through “major technology challenges” with Live AI.

• The Live AI feature will initially be available for only one to two hours at a time, rather than all day.
• Both Zuckerberg and the influencer blamed Wi-Fi connectivity issues for some of the problems.

Why this matters: The public failures highlight the gap between Meta’s ambitious AI promises and current technical reality, particularly as the company competes with OpenAI, Apple, and Amazon in conversational AI technology.

• Meta has positioned its smart glasses as a way for users to “stay present in the moment, while getting access to all these AI capabilities that make you smarter.”
• The neural band represents Meta’s attempt to solve input challenges for smart glasses by interpreting small muscle movements in the wrist.

What they’re saying: Neither Meta nor Zuckerberg has commented on the failed demonstrations, unlike earlier this month when Zuckerberg acknowledged being caught on a hot mic at the White House.