Even Realities CEO Criticizes Meta, Google Over Camera-First Smart Glasses Strategy

Will Wang isn't playing the same game as Meta and Google. The Even Realities founder and CEO is publicly challenging the smart glasses strategies of tech giants, arguing they sacrifice current user experience to feed future AI models.

"I feel these larger companies let their endgame thinking dictate their current products instead of focusing on making the perfect product for the present moment," Wang said in an exclusive interview.

A Different Approach

While Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses and Google's latest wearables integrate cameras for multimodal AI capabilities, Even Realities' G1 and G2 glasses intentionally omit cameras and speakers. Instead, they use a text-based heads-up display for notifications, teleprompting, translation, and navigation.

The strategy is resonating. The G2 launched in November 2025 at $599 and has sold more than 10,000 units. In July 2026, Even Realities reached a $1 billion valuation following a $150 million pre-Series B funding round led by Meituan and Tencent.

Wang, an ex-Apple engineer who worked on the Apple Watch and iPhone, frames the decision as both ethical and practical. "We feel it's too early, too risky, and has too little upside for a company like ours that does not thrive on selling data," he said. "We thrive on making good products and making a profit from those products."

Industry Divide

The smart glasses market now splits between two philosophies: sensor-heavy devices that use cameras for AI training versus ambient displays that prioritize privacy and wearability. Even Realities has scaled from 30-40 staff in 2024 to 300-400 employees currently as it develops its next hardware iteration.

This tension reflects a broader conflict in AI wearables. Camera-equipped glasses enable features like object recognition and real-time visual search, but raise privacy concerns and drain battery life. Camera-less designs offer longer runtime and social acceptability but lack multimodal AI capabilities.

Why It Matters

If Even Realities succeeds with its privacy-first approach, it could challenge the data-harvesting business model that dominates Big Tech. The company's $1 billion valuation suggests investors see viability in a product-centric rather than data-centric strategy.

For consumers, the choice is becoming clearer: invasive AI features now, or discreet assistance that respects privacy. Wang's critique suggests the former may serve corporate interests more than user needs.