Lorde Calls Out AI Smart Glasses at Madrid Festival
Lorde criticized AI smart glasses during a live set at the Real Cool Festival in Madrid, likely referencing Ray-Ban Meta glasses, a festival sponsor.
During her set at the Real Cool Festival in Madrid, singer Lorde paused to criticize AI smart glasses, telling the crowd it was getting hard to know what is real. She did not name a brand directly, but Ray-Ban, which co-produces a line of AI-enabled smartglasses with Meta, was a sponsor of the festival. The moment was recorded and spread across social media, adding another public voice to a growing conversation about wearable AI and privacy in shared spaces.
What happened
Performing in Madrid on Thursday, Lorde stopped her set to address the audience about AI wearables. She thanked the crowd for showing up to “something real,” then said it was increasingly difficult to know what is and is not real around you. She trailed into a pointed comment about people wearing glasses that might be doing more than blocking the sun.
She stopped short of naming a specific product, but Ray-Ban was a listed sponsor of the Real Cool Festival. Ray-Ban has an ongoing collaboration with Meta that produces a line of AI smartglasses capable of capturing photos and video and running Meta’s AI assistant.
Why does this matter for businesses and events?
Lorde’s comments reflect a tension that is showing up in more public spaces: wearable AI hardware is hard to detect. Unlike a phone pointed at someone, AI glasses look like ordinary eyewear. That makes consent and awareness genuinely complicated at live events, in offices, and in customer-facing environments.
For brands sponsoring events with AI products, the backlash risk is real. A festival crowd is exactly the demographic that notices and talks. Having your product called out by a headliner, even without being named directly, is not a great outcome for a sponsorship investment.
The Ray-Ban Meta glasses have attracted attention before as Meta has pushed their AI features more aggressively. This kind of public moment adds cultural pressure on top of ongoing regulatory and privacy debates around always-available AI cameras in social settings.
Our take
The source is thin on specifics, so we will keep this proportionate. Lorde’s comment is one data point, not a verdict on the product category. But the underlying concern she is pointing at, that you cannot tell what a device near you is doing, is a legitimate and unsolved problem for AI wearables.
From an agency perspective, businesses considering AI integration into customer experiences need to think about how visible and legible the technology is to people nearby. If the answer is “they cannot tell,” that is not a feature, it is a liability. We cover this kind of tension regularly in our AI news coverage, and it keeps coming up because the hardware is moving faster than social norms or regulation.
If you are building products or experiences that use ambient AI, the right move is to over-communicate what the technology does, not obscure it. Transparency is the only durable strategy here.
Frequently asked questions
What did Lorde say about AI glasses?
At the Real Cool Festival in Madrid, Lorde told the crowd it was increasingly hard to know what is real, and made pointed comments about people wearing glasses that may be doing more than they appear. She did not name a specific brand.
Are Ray-Ban Meta glasses the glasses Lorde was talking about?
She did not specify a brand, but Ray-Ban was a sponsor of the Real Cool Festival in Madrid. Ray-Ban makes a line of AI smartglasses in partnership with Meta.
What can Ray-Ban Meta glasses do?
The Ray-Ban Meta glasses can capture photos and video and run Meta's AI assistant, while looking like ordinary Ray-Ban sunglasses.
Why are AI smart glasses controversial at events?
AI smartglasses are difficult to distinguish from regular eyewear, which raises concerns about recording and AI features being used without the knowledge or consent of people nearby.