By Kevin Hawkins with Korey Hawkins | Vol. 2 Post 35
REAL AI is a human-created weekly roundup of all things related to artificial intelligence in real estate and emerging AI innovations in other sectors likely to impact our industry. We post a new edition every Friday, and our free newsletter is delivered every Monday.
Testing Meta AI Ray-Bans at the iOi Summit
One of my favorite two-day annual real estate tech events is the NAR iOi Summit. I’ve been to every one, and this year, it was in my hometown, Chicago.
Artificial intelligence had top billing throughout the conference, from the first-rate Lead Gen Panel I moderated on day one to the fabulous keynote speaker, AI expert, and storyteller Noelle Russell on day two.
Nearly every session and keynote talked about or mentioned AI in some way.
The timing of the conference allowed me to test out my first AI wearable, which I wrote about last year: the latest pair of Meta AI-powered Ray-Bans. I first saw Sam DeBord at RESO wear these smart glasses on stage, and recently, a friend visiting us in Seattle from Los Angeles let me try on and test his pair. I ordered them the next day.
The price point for these Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses is attractive: $299 for the standard clear lens version or $399 for ones with transitional lenses. They are also available as a prescription version with transitional lenses that will set you back about $700.
Sharp and smart
These smart Ray-Bans are unobtrusive and highly compelling compared to the failed Google Glasses. You don’t feel like you are wearing a computer – but you are. They feel – and look like – a regular pair of Ray-Ban Wayfarers.
My sunglasses are the same brand and style, so I ordered the ones with transitional lenses. The Ray-Ban website has a selection of styles, colors, and sizes.
One of the coolest things you’ll immediately discover when they arrive is that the tan leather case stores and charges your Ray-Bans. There’s a small USB-C port at the bottom. Surprisingly, it does not come with an adapter, just a chord, but the charger is so ubiquitous that we are seeing this more commonly, even with higher-end purchases like this one.
What does it do?
This AI wearable is a blast to use. The immediate benefit is that it delivers several single-touch, hands-on experiences: it takes photos, records short videos, plays music (headphones free and from the frames), and has Meta AI built in to ask questions and tap into its computer vision to “see” and interpret things you want more information about.
Setting up the Meta View app on my iPhone was a breeze, as was syncing it with Bluetooth.
Once connected to Meta View, you can:
-Capture photos
-Take videos in 30 and 60-second spurts or a full 3-minute video
-Take and make calls
-Livestream to Facebook or Instagram (maximum time is reportedly 30 minutes “due to thermal conditions,” says Meta – and it will drain your battery)
-Video calling via Meta’s WhatsApp or Messenger
-Ask Meta AI advanced questions about what you see and sometimes get answers
Remarkable sound quality and clarity
Surprisingly, one of my primary motivations for buying these wasn’t its AI features. It was the sound. Like many people I know, I first loved my Apple Pro AirPods for their noise-canceling capabilities and sound quality. But they kept falling out of my ear. I had to wear them in a fashion that made me look like a Martian: I had an antenna protruding out the sides of my head!
I won a pair of Beat earbuds at a RESO charity raffle, which fit much better. However, I am tough on earbuds because I travel considerably, and I already have slightly torn ones, and now they don’t fit as snugly as they once did.
But I no longer care. The fidelity of the Ray-Bans is stunning, whether you are streaming from Spotify or taking a call. Unless I forgot I was on Bluetooth and walked away from my phone; calls were crystal clear both ways.
The best part is that there is nothing to stick in my ear, and they will not fall off when I’m on the treadmill or out for a fast walk.
A potential major downside: Unlike earbuds, they do bleed sound, meaning someone sitting next to you will be able to hear a bit of your music too. On an airplane, that could be a problem unless it’s a family member.
Quality photos and video
Another delightful surprise about these AI wearables is the photos. With its built-in 12 MP camera, I took dozens of shots and shared the results with others, who were stunned to see the high resolution and excellent color quality results.
At the iOi Summit, I had a major advantage over folks trying to capture slides with their phones. No matter how fast the speaker advanced their slides, as a single click with my index finger snagged the image, I never missed one.
Enabling the video takes a little getting used to, but again, the quality is remarkably clear, and the sound is impressive on my test videos.
What was surprising was how few people noticed I took their picture until I told them what I was wearing. The Ray Bays emit a small white light that you can easily see, but most people miss it.
One fail: Meta AI disappoints
Since its April upgrade, Meta AI has been much better than it was. However, being a ChatGPT-4o user, Meta AI pales in comparison. I tested what I saw, asking Meta about the type of bushes, trees, and flowers. I tested it on dogs. I tested it on models of cars.
First, Meta AI is like an early version of Alexa: it requires you to provide an exact structure to your question to enable vision commands. You can’t just ask, “What am I looking at?” – and that’s a major fail.
The majority of the time, it could “see” the basics with its computer vision capabilities, reporting, “Black car appears to be an SUV,” but it got the model wrong. When I told it the car was a Volvo, it acknowledged the mistake and corrected itself.
So, like all Generative AI, Meta AI is still learning – it just has so far to catch up to ChatGPT, not to mention Claude or even Gemini. However, I hope Meta AI will keep improving as I continue to use and test it.
Other shortcomings
The other downside will also change over time: the fixed-frame nature of the photos and video these Ray-Bans produce. There are no wide-angle or zoom capabilities, but you can imagine that will be on the horizon. But that will also mean buying a new pair of wearables, and by then, Ray-Bans and Meta may have a lot more competition.
Bottom line
I would buy these again in a heartbeat – even without the Meta AI feature, which seems strange as that’s what these are supposed to be, right? Smart glasses. But they feel more like a party trick that only sometimes is a hit. It’s kind of like wanting to talk to ChatGPT, but Alexa answers. Still, that should improve, moving these closer to being indispensable devices. (-Kevin)
AI Videos Worth Watching
Microsoft
Azure AI Studio Demo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOXDyRLT6so
Zoom
Introducing Zoom Docs with AI Companion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HhuKL1Q40E
Apple Intelligence
What’s coming in the next iPhone 16? WWDC hinted at 1:06:15
https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2024/101/
OpenAI
Live demo of GPT4-o voice variation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9byh4MAsUQ
Anthropic
Claude 3.5 Sonnet as a writing partner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dWfl7Dhb0o (-Korey)
AI Headlines
Amazon aims to launch delayed AI Alexa subscription in October | 8/26/24 The Washington Post
Some of the new features include a daily AI-generated news summary and new shopping tools.
Why Realtors should embrace AI diversity: Beyond ChatGPT for better results | 8/23/24 Real Estate Magazine
Utilizing multiple AI systems is more beneficial than relying on a single AI model.
California’s legislature just passed the AI safety bill that divided Silicon Valley | 8/29/24 Business Insider
If signed, AI developers will be required to comply with safety measures before they can build their AI model.
This privacy-first AI assistant lets you write emails in languages you don’t speak | 8/29/24 ZDNET
Proton Scribe is helping to bridge the language gap.
Google’s custom AI chatbots have arrived | 8/28/24 The Verge
Google Gems will let advanced users create their own chatbot with different personalities and specialties. (-Korey)
AI Quote of the Week
Subscribe to our free REAL AI newsletter here.
Content suggestions welcomed: email korey@wavgroup.com.
