Are AI Glasses Over?, Big Technology Audience Questions, Alex Stamos on AI Cybersecurity

**Alex Kantrowitz** (0:00)
Though for many of you, he needs no introduction, let me introduce Ranjan Roy. I first started reading Ranjan Roy's writing. In 2021, he had written this newsletter called Margins, and I thought it was a terrific newsletter. I saved it, I spent my winter break reading it, I DM'd him. By that January, we had decided to do an emergency podcast about a crazy financial situation. And then Ranjan and I kept talking more and more.
And then by January 2023, I wrote to him and said, hey, don't you want to just come and do this every week? And lucky for me and lucky for us on, with anyone involved with Big Technology Podcast, Ranjan said yes. And so getting a chance to speak with Ranjan every Friday is an absolute joy. It's definitely one of the highlights of my week. And today we're thrilled to be able to do our Friday show live here with you, with your audience questions.
And then we'll just run it tomorrow like a normal podcast. So I hope you're ready. We definitely need your participation. And please join me in welcoming Ranjan Roy.

**Ranjan Roy** (1:08)
I got them on.
I'm gonna take these off though. We'll get into the snap spectacles. This is a medium risk maneuver because I have this microphone on, so.

**Alex Kantrowitz** (1:19)
Those are the Snapchat spectacles.

**Ranjan Roy** (1:21)
These are the Snapchat spectacles. They're the original developer beta edition though, so they're not the new ones. But I had them in 2021

**Alex Kantrowitz** (1:29)
Now everyone knows how cool you are. All right, should I start the show?

**Ranjan Roy** (1:32)
I'm as cool as Evan Spiegel.

**Alex Kantrowitz** (1:34)
That's right, yeah.

**Ranjan Roy** (1:34)
Is he still cool though?

**Alex Kantrowitz** (1:36)
All right, let's do it. How would I start it?

**Ranjan Roy** (1:41)
Did I throw you off?

**Alex Kantrowitz** (1:42)
No, I didn't even write this down. Okay, I'll try to do it. All right. Snapchat comes out with new spectacles and we take your audience questions. That's coming up right after this on a Big Technology Podcast Friday Edition recorded on Thursday. Welcome to Big Technology Podcast Friday Edition where we break down the news in our traditional cool-headed and nuanced format. We're joined as always by Ranjan Roy who is here with us, not in studio, live with the Big Technology AI Summit audience. Audience, let's hear you.
The way this is gonna work is Ranjan and I will break down one story and then we definitely welcome your questions, your prompts, your arguments with us. If you don't have anything, we have plenty to do, but we'd love to have your participation. You can line up at either of the mics there to ask us a question. Let's start with our top story this week. I promised myself when this summit was being planned that I would not be mean to Snapchat. However, Snapchat has left me with no choice. John, let's roll image C, please.
Listeners, if you are listening on the podcast, you'll see what we're looking at at the audience here is an image of Evan Spiegel on CNBC wearing the latest Snap Specs. The headline is Snap Stock Falls After AR Specs Debut.
Almost 20 years since the launch of the iPhone, people are ready to think about computing differently, Spiegel said in an interview with CNBC. The market reacted differently. Ranjan, let me just go to you quickly. Do you think that Snapchat and Meta and all these other companies have been trying to build these AI device of the future for years? This is what we're looking at.

**Ranjan Roy** (3:29)
This is what we're looking at.

**Alex Kantrowitz** (3:32)
You ruined my surprise. Can we go to D, please?

**Ranjan Roy** (3:37)
I brought them. I had to bring them after sending Alex that photo.

**Alex Kantrowitz** (3:41)
Is it time for us to finally accept that we're not going to have an AR device?

**Ranjan Roy** (3:46)
Interesting.
These again, I got these in 2021 It's actually a very cool technology.
I'm serious, augmented reality. If you ever use magic leap in the 2010s, being able to paint throughout your room and walk around that painting, being able to play games or you're chasing zombies. Again, my seven-year-old son actually is probably the only fan of Snap Spectacles in the world right now. He still loves using them. He also likes to watch YouTube on them, which is amazing. But I think that form factor and the experience is amazing. Vision Pro has not quite captured it. I don't think what we just saw on Evan Spiegel's face is going to capture it. I think eventually maybe Apple or someone will, but I don't think we're there yet, but I think we will be. I still am betting on AR eyeglasses of some sort.