OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has again expressed his dislike of smart glasses, saying he finds it uncomfortable to speak with people who are wearing glasses equipped with a camera and indicator light. His comments come as Meta continues to expand its AI-powered eyewear business through its partnership with Ray-Ban.

Speaking on the Sources Podcast, Altman said he is uncomfortable talking to someone carrying a camera on their face. The remarks were reported by Business Insider.

Altman's position is not new. At the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference last year, he was asked whether the sunglasses he was wearing were smart glasses. His response was an immediate rejection of the idea, saying that he did not like smart glasses.

Meta's smart glasses business continues to grow

Altman's comments come at a time when smart glasses are becoming an increasingly important consumer hardware category for Meta.

Meta has built a strong position in the market through its collaboration with Ray-Ban owner EssilorLuxottica. The company has been selling AI-enabled glasses that combine conventional eyewear with features powered by artificial intelligence.

EssilorLuxottica said it sold more than 7 million pairs of AI-enabled glasses in the previous year, indicating the scale the category has reached.

Meta's Reality Labs division, which includes its consumer hardware business, reported revenue of $431 million in the second quarter of 2026. That represented an increase of $61 million compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

Meta has said stronger demand for its AI glasses is helping offset weaker sales of Quest virtual reality headsets.

Why Altman's comments matter for Meta

Meta and OpenAI are competing in the broader AI market, but their approaches to consumer hardware appear different.

Meta has embraced wearable devices as a way to bring AI assistants and other technology closer to users in everyday situations. OpenAI, meanwhile, has yet to launch a comparable smart-glasses product and Altman's comments suggest that he remains unconvinced by the current format.

His criticism is particularly focused on the presence of cameras. For users, cameras embedded in wearable devices can raise questions about privacy and whether people nearby know when they may be recorded.

OpenAI is still working on AI hardware

Altman's reservations about smart glasses do not mean OpenAI is stepping away from hardware.

The company is working with Jony Ive, the designer closely associated with Apple's iPhone-era product design, on AI-enabled devices. Altman has described a broader hardware strategy involving different forms of devices intended for different settings.

He has indicated that OpenAI sees potential for one device to sit on a table, another to be carried in a pocket and another to be worn on the body.

That suggests OpenAI's hardware plans could extend beyond a single product category. The company has not, however, provided a complete public roadmap for those devices in the material available for this report.

For now, Altman's position creates an interesting contrast with Meta. While Meta is building a major business around AI-enabled eyewear, the OpenAI chief remains openly uncomfortable with the idea of interacting with someone through a camera-equipped pair of glasses, even as his company works toward its own generation of AI hardware.