Sergey Brin points to where Google Glasses failed — and what Android XR gets right
Google DeepMind Demis Hassabis and Google co-founder Sergey Brin sat for an interview at Google I/O.
Jennifer Elias
Google on Tuesday announced that it’s getting back into the smart glasses game, and co-founder Sergey Brin said that this time will be different.
“I’ve learned a lot,” Brin said Tuesday at a fireside chat during the annual Google I/O developer conference.
His appearance came after Google announced a partnership with Warby Parker, which saw its stock rise more than 15% after the two companies said they plan to launch a series of smart glasses as soon as next year. The glasses will be built on top of Google’s Android XR, an operating system for headset computers, and they’ll include Google’s Gemini AI assistant that users can speak with to control the wearable devices.
Brin’s comments came in an impromptu appearance at a conference chat scheduled between Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and journalist Alex Kantrowitz about “the future of AI and its impact on our world.”
During the chat, Brin said that with the rise of generative artificial intelligence, Alphabet is able to revive the idea of Google Glass, the wearable devices the company launched in 2013 for $1,500.
“I definitely feel like I made a lot of mistakes with Google Glass, I’ll be honest,” Brin said, adding that he is still a big believer in the glasses form factor.
“And now it looks like normal glasses without that thing in front,” he said, referring to the visible camera that existed on the corner of the original Google Glass prototype.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin demonstrates Google’s new Glass, wearable internet glasses, at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco, Wednesday, June 27, 2012. The audience got live video feeds from their glasses as they descended to land on the roof of the Moscone Center, the location of the conference. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
Paul Sakuma
Brin attributed the failure of Google Glass in part to “a technology gap.” Since 2013 when Google Glass was launched, the company has developed advanced AI technology that powers Gemini, its flagship AI product and a key component for users to control a wearable device.
“Now, in the AI world, the things these glasses can do to help you out without constantly distracting you — that capability is much higher,” he said.
Brin also said that during his first attempt at the Google Glass, he didn’t know anything about supply chains and how to get the glasses to a reasonable price point.
The Google co-founder’s comments come as companies race to compete for wearable glasses as a form factor for AI products. Meta partnered with EssilorLuxottica, the maker of Ray-Ban, to make smart glasses that have a camera for capturing photos and videos. Apple is reportedly working on smart glasses that use augmented reality.
Besides Warby Parker, Google on Tuesday said it will partner with developers and device makers for Android XR, including Samsung, Qualcomm, Sony, Xreal and Magic Leap. Google’s annual developer conference also included a number of updates to its AI products, including a new high-end subscription service called Google AI Ultra, which costs $249.99 per month.
Google announces Android XR and their partnerships with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker during Google’s annual I/O developers conference in Mountain View, California on May 20, 2025.
Camille Cohen | AFP | Getty Images
Glass was first sold to developers and early adopters and gained popularity mostly among tech enthusiasts. Despite backing from Brin and fellow Google co-founder Larry Page, the Glass project never caught on as a mainstream product. The built-in camera led to fights over privacy, and the product became the butt of jokes on late-night television. The company tried to re-launch it as an “enterprise” product, but Google in 2023 announced that it would stop selling its Glass Enterprise smart glasses.
Brin on Tuesday joked about the infamous skydivers that introduced the glasses at Google I/O in 2012, which took place at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. At the time, four Google employees skydived out of a plane, live streaming their jump through their Google Glasses.
“Honestly, it would have been even cooler here at Shoreline Amphitheater,” Brin said, referring to the Mountain View, California, venue that’s currently used by Google for the conference.
“But we should probably polish the product first,” he said, which drew laughs from the audience. “Then we’ll do a really cool demo. That’s probably the smart move.”
Technology
Quantum stocks Rigetti Computing and D-Wave surged double-digits this week. Here’s what’s driving the big move
Inside Google’s quantum computing lab in Santa Barbara, California.
CNBC
Quantum computing stocks are wrapping up a big week of double-digit gains.
Shares of Rigetti Computing, D-Wave Quantum and Quantum Computing have surged more than 20%. Rigetti and D-Wave Quantum have more than doubled and tripled, respectively, since the start of the year. Arqit Quantum skyrocketed more than 32% this week.
The jump in shares followed a wave of positive news in the quantum space.
Rigetti said it had purchase orders totalling $5.7 million for two of its 9-qubit Novera quantum computing systems. The owner of drugmaker Novo Nordisk and the Danish government also invested 300 million euros in a quantum venture fund.
In a blog post earlier this week, Nvidia also highlighted accelerated computing, which it argues can make “quantum computing breakthroughs of today and tomorrow possible.”
Investors have piled into quantum computing technology this year, as tech giants Microsoft, Nvidia and Amazon have embraced the technology with a wave of new chip announcements, multi-million dollar investments and research plans.
Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images
OpenAI’s new artificial intelligence video app Sora has already grabbed the top spot in Apple‘s App Store as its number one free app, despite being invite-only.
Sora, which was launched on Tuesday, allows users to create short-form AI videos and share them in a feed. The app is available to iPhone users but requires an invite code to access.
Here’s how to snag a Sora app invite code:
- First, download the app from the iOS App Store. Note that Sora requires iOS 18.0 or later to be downloaded.
- Login using your OpenAI account.
- Click “Notify me when access opens.”
A screen will then appear asking for an access code.
Currently, OpenAI has said that it is prioritizing paying ChatGPT Pro users for Sora access. The app is only available in the U.S. and Canada, but is expected to roll out to additional countries soon, the company said.
If you do not know someone who can provide an access code, several people are sharing invite codes on the official OpenAI Discord server, as well as on X and Reddit threads.
Once you input your access, you will be able to start generating AI videos using text or images. Users are also able to cameo as characters in their videos as well as “remix” other posts.
The app is powered by the new Sora 2.0 model, an updated version of the original Sora model from last year. The video generation model is “physically accurate, realistic, and more controllable” than prior systems, the company said in a blog post.
Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
OpenAI now has two of the top three free apps in Apple’s App Store, and its new video generation app Sora has snagged the coveted No. 1 spot.
The artificial intelligence startup launched Sora on Tuesday, and it allows users to generate short-form AI videos, remix videos created by other users and post them to a shared feed. Sora is only available on iOS devices and is invite-based, which means users need a code to access it.
Despite these restrictions, Sora has secured the top spot in the App Store, ahead of Google‘s Gemini and OpenAI’s generative chatbot ChatGPT.
“It’s been epic to see what the collective creativity of humanity is capable of so far,” Bill Peebles, head of Sora at OpenAI, wrote in a post on X on Friday. “Team is iterating fast and listening to feedback.”
Sora is powered by OpenAI’s latest video and audio generation model called Sora 2. OpenAI said the model is capable of creating scenes and sounds with “a high degree of realism,” according to a blog post. The startup’s first video and audio generation model, Sora, was announced in February 2024.
OpenAI said it has taken steps to address potential safety concerns around the Sora app, including giving users explicit control over how their likeness is used on the platform. But some of the initial videos posted to the app, including one that depicts OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shoplifting, have sparked debates about its utility, potential for harm and legality.
“It is easy to imagine the degenerate case of AI video generation that ends up with us all being sucked into an RL-optimized slop feed,” Altman wrote in a post on X on Tuesday. “The team has put great care and thought into trying to figure out how to make a delightful product that doesn’t fall into that trap, and has come up with a number of promising ideas.”
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