Meta Silently Added Face-Recognition Code for Its Smart Glasses to Millions of Phones
Key takeaways
- Its renewed efforts arrive amid mounting opposition to consumer-level face recognition, which privacy advocates argue will give anyone from stalkers to immigration agents easy access to a dangerous technology.
- Three AI models powering NameTag have already been deployed from Meta's servers and now reside on its customers' phones, according to WIRED’s analysis, which was independently reproduced by outside experts.
- Only traces of the user interface are currently present, hinting at how the feature may ultimately work.
Why this matters: a development in AI with implications for how people work, create, and decide.
Photo-Illustration: WIRED Staff; Getty Images Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Meta has quietly embedded face-recognition technology for its smart glasses into an app downloaded to millions of phones, according to a WIRED analysis of the company's software.
Code discreetly added to Meta’s AI app over multiple updates this year shows that the feature, internally called “Name Tag,” identifies people captured by the glasses’ camera and, when activated, alerts the wearer when it recognizes someone.
The discovery of NameTag in the live Meta AI app shows that Meta had begun shipping face-recognition code to users' phones while publicly describing it as something the company was still “thinking through.” In April, Meta said if it were to utilize face recognition, it wouldn't be rolled out without first taking "a very thoughtful approach." But WIRED found that as early as January, core components of the system had been integrated into software distributed to millions of people.