Meta’s chief technology officer has some answers about what went wrong on Wednesday night.
In a series of Instagram stories, Andrew Bosworth spoke about what led to two instances of live product demo glitches at the company’s annual Meta Connect.
At the event, CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to the stage to reveal the second-generation Meta Ray-Bans, a neural wristband, Meta Ray-Bans Display with heads-up display, and sports-centered glasses with Oakley. Announcements were followed up by various live demos.
‘We Ddosed ourselves’
In the first awkward glitch of the night, Zuckerberg connected food content creator Jack Mancuso to the big screen for a live demo on how the newly upgraded Ray Ban Meta glasses could help Mancuso cook.
Mancuso asked the glasses with voice control to show him how to mix a “Korean-inspired steak sauce” for his steak sandwich. Instead of starting with the basic steps, the AI responded that he should use soy sauce and sesame oil. Mancuso asked what he should do first multiple times, but the AI ignored his inquiries and moved on with its instructions.
“The irony of the whole thing is that you spend years making technology and then the WiFi at the day catches you,” Zuckerberg said before moving on.
On an Instagram story he uploaded on Thursday, Bosworth explained what went wrong.
“I know the product works, I know it has the goods,” Bosworth said. “It really was a demo fail and not a product failure.”
Bosworth said that when the chef asked the glasses to start live AI, it started live AI for every single pair of Meta glasses in the building.
“We DDoSed ourselves,” the CTO said, referring to a cyberattack where multiple systems flood a target server with overwhelming internet traffic. “It didn’t happen in rehearsal because we didn’t have as many people with the glasses in the building.”
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Missed ‘legendary status’
Wednesday’s second live demo fail occurred not long after Zuckerberg revealed the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses alongside a neural wristband.
The Ray-Ban Display is the newest addition to Meta’s smart glasses lineup. It has a heads-up display, or HUD, that appears on the right side of the glasses to deliver notifications and navigation prompts without requiring users to look down at a phone.
During the live demo of the Meta Ray-Ban Display, Zuckerberg used the wristband to type messages to Bosworth. On Thursday, the CTO said that the band’s typing feature will be out in December.
When Zuckerberg suggested that Bosworth give him a video call, the demo had a hiccup. The CEO repeated hand motions with the wristband in attempts to pick up the calls, but none worked, before Bosworth came to the rescue in person.
“The video call issue was actually quite a bit more obscure,” Bosworth said on Thursday’s Instagram story. “A never-before-seen bug, in a new product.”
“The display had gone to sleep at the very instant that the notification had come in that a call was coming,” he said. The bug meant that the answer call notification was not shown even when Zuckerberg woke the display back up.
“It’s fixed now, and that’s a terrible, terrible place for a bug to show up,” Bosworth added. “You guys know we can do video calling.”
“We missed an opportunity for legendary status with those things,” he added. “But I do think the launch was still good and people still love it.”
