‘I find it very uncomfortable’: Sam Altman explains why he doesn’t like talking to people wearing camera-equipped smart glasses — and it could be a big clue about Jony Ive’s AI device

Sam Altman does not like smart glasses.

Speaking on the Sources Podcast, the OpenAI CEO said he finds it “very uncomfortable talking to people with a camera and a light” and confirmed that he does not wear smart glasses himself.

That is a surprisingly firm position considering where the technology industry appears to be heading and the success of products like Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses.

Then again, Altman is working with former Apple design chief Jony Ive on an entire family of AI devices.

OpenAI has kept the Ive project deliberately foggy, but Altman has suggested they are making a range of AI hardware.

His comments about smart glasses draw one clear boundary, removing the idea of a camera pointed at everyone as a feature.

Smart glasses have visible drawback (Image credit: Meta) Altman does identify a fundamental flaw in smart glasses that has little to do with processors, battery life or AI model choices.

Glasses place technology directly between two people looking at each other, and adding a camera turns an ordinary conversation into one where the other person has to wonder whether they are also an unwilling piece of content.

Smartphones established a useful social signal around recording.

Someone pointing a phone camera at you is usually fairly conspicuous.

Camera glasses erase much of that distinction because their great design achievement is making a recording device look inconspicuous.

It's why similar tools have been a staple of James Bond-style spy fiction for decades.

Australia’s eSafety commissioner has already asked manufacturers to make recording indicators impossible to disable and automatically blur faces when informed consent is absent.

The regulator cited women being covertly filmed for social content and rejected the idea that telling customers to behave responsibly amounts to a safety policy.