Pop star Lorde isn't impressed with Meta's AI glasses, even as Kylie Jenner promotes them like a walking advertisement. During her set at the Mad Cool Festival in Madrid last week, Lorde didn't hold back her thoughts on the technology, which many security experts have labeled a privacy nightmare. "Increasingly in our world, it gets harder and harder to know what is real," she told the crowd. "You don't know if someone is wearing sunglasses, or if they're wearing those messed-up, freaking [AI glasses]. Can I just say, for the record, forget the glasses. Don't get the glasses. Not sexy."

Lorde has previously written about throwing her phone into the ocean, but this critique took things to another level. Her commentary may have been sparked by the fact that Ray-Ban, a festival sponsor, collaborates with Meta to produce AI glasses. Additionally, Lorde performed right before singer Jennie, who serves as an ambassador for the Ray-Ban x Meta smart glasses line.

Lorde is far from the only voice raising alarms. Smart glasses, equipped with cameras and AI features, have been exploited for harassment and extortion. Meta, the leading smart glasses manufacturer, claims it prioritizes privacy and includes safeguards like a visible recording light. However, the company faces numerous investigations and lawsuits alleging privacy breaches. One lawsuit claims Kenyan contract workers were forced to watch graphic footage captured with the glasses to train Meta's AI. (Meta has not publicly addressed this specific allegation in detail.)

Despite these concerns, the product is selling well. EssilorLuxottica, the company behind Ray-Ban, reported selling over 7 million Meta AI glasses in 2025—more than triple the roughly 2 million units sold in 2023 and 2024 combined. The Ray-Ban Meta glasses have become such a hit in the smart-glasses market that a confident Meta continues to expand the product line. But if privacy concerns don't make people reconsider, perhaps vanity will. Lorde sums it up neatly with her blunt assessment: they're simply "not sexy."

The here and now, she added, "is sexy."