Has META’s (META) Real-Time AI Ushered In The Era Of Smart Glasses?

META has just released new upgrades for its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. The new features include translation between multiple languages during a conversation and the ability to reference things previously discussed in a conversation. The new software is dubbed ‘Live AI’ as it has the ability to use AI in real-time as the users ask questions about whatever things they are viewing at that time.

META Platforms is the owner of social media platforms Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Ever since changing its name from Facebook Inc. to META Platforms, the company has been working at diversifying its business from just being a social media company. Having said that, the foundation of the company’s smart glasses initiatives was laid in 2014 with the acquisition of Oculus for $2 billion.

The company has poured over $63 billion into its augmented reality ambitions, which has always caused shareholder concern. However, with the emergence of AI, META’s smart glasses finally became relevant and started generating revenue thanks to the new AI features. October sales figures from Ray-Ban showed that META’s Ray-Ban smart glasses were the top-selling product in 60% of all Ray-Ban stores in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

The new update also eliminates the need to say ‘Hey Meta’ before asking the AI a question. Moreover, the AI can be interrupted anytime during the answer to a query, again without having to say, Hey Meta. The translation functionality is limited to English, Italian, French, and Spanish only. The user wearing the glasses will hear the translated speech from the open-ear speakers or as a transcript on their phone.

As META starts to taste success after pouring billions into mixed reality projects, it now has another headache. Google and Samsung have just teamed up for their own mixed reality headset developer kit, which is in direct competition with Apple and META’s ambitions. It looks like all companies want to deliver the best version of their product as Christmas gets near.

META is 3rd on our latest list of the 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 235 hedge fund portfolios held META at the end of the third quarter which was 219 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of META as a leading investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as META but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.