'We DDoS'd ourselves': Meta explains why it's smart glasses demo failed so spectacularly and says 'never-before-seen' video bug is now fixed

Date:
Fri, 19 Sep 2025 15:21:55 +0000

Description:
CTO Andrew Bosworth has since taken to Instagram to reveal what went wrong with Connect's live demos.

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Meta Connect 2025 was packed with impressive smart glasses reveals, but also several iconic live demo fails. CTO Andrew Bosworth has since taken to Instagram to reveal what went wrong.

The first demo issue involved a chef trying and failing to get the glasses to help him prepare a meal to showcase Live AI an always-on version of Metas AI that can give you continual contextual assistance by following your actions. @techradar

original sound - TechRadar

After a few attempts to go to the next step of the process, the chef had to give up and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had to carry on with the show, and put the blame on the Wi-Fi. Andrew Bosworth explained later that the Wi-Fi wasn't at fault, When the chef said Hey Meta start Live AI it started every single Ray-Ban Metas Live AI in the building, and there was a lot of people in that building.

He added that what made matters worse was we had routed Live AI traffic to
our dev server, in theory to isolate it, but we had done it for everyone in that building on those access points. Basically We DDoSd ourselves.

A DDoS is a cyberattack that aims to overload a server by throwing as much traffic at it as possible from multiple sources so that it cant be accessed.

Bosworth said that they had rehearsed the demo and it went smoothly, but that there were nowhere near as many Ray-Ban devices in the building to cause issues. A never-before-seen bug

What about the video call glitch that ruined Bosworths intro to the show?
This was quite a bit more obscure according to his post-show analysis. @techradar

original sound - TechRadar

In what he described as A never-before-seen bug in a new product, Bosworth said the cause of the issue was The display had gone to sleep at the very instant the notification had come in that a call was coming.

And so it was a race condition which caused it that even when Mark woke the display back up we didnt show the answer notification to him.

A race condition is a programming term for when multiple processes are being executed at the same time that rely on shared data. The processes typically arent meant to be running at the same time, and have accidentally entered
into a race to see which completes first potentially altering the shared
data and messing up whatever the other process was trying to do.

In the demo, it sounds like the notifications and wake up feature were both trying to do different things with the display causing the onstage gaffe.

Regardless of what went wrong, the demo was the first time we had ever seen the bug according to Bosworth, adding (while smiling) its fixed now.
Post-fail postivity (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

In other Instagram Stories, Andrew Bosworth said that while the demo failures were a bummer, they havent convinced Meta to abandon live demos or caused
much embarrassment.

Thats because lots of journalists like our own Lance Ulanoff and Josephine Watson have tried the glasses out and been very impressed with what theyve seen.

These critics, as Bosworth refers to them, wouldnt be so positive if there wasnt positive stuff to say about the glasses.

Speaking of which, Lance said of the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses based on my experience, nothing comes closer to effortlessly delivering information at a glance, and I'm starting to wonder if this is a glimpse of what will someday replace smartphones. You might also like I've found the new Oakley smart glasses are perfect for ... XR glasses can't replace my TV yet, but I was surprised at ... These smart glasses promise to remember your life better ...



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/computing/virtual-reality-augmented-reality/we-ddosd -ourselves-meta-explains-why-its-smart-glasses-demo-failed-so-spectacularly-an d-says-never-before-seen-video-bug-is-now-fixed


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