Day: September 17, 2025

• Meta’s AI glasses demos glitched twice at the 2025 Meta Connect event.
• CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his team blamed the hiccups on the WiFi connection.
• Andrew Bosworth, the chief technology officer of Meta, promised to debug the wristband issues.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta AI glasses demo went wrong live onstage — twice.

On Wednesday, the CEO took to the stage at the company’s annual Meta Connect event 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.

To drive his point home that AI should serve people and not just “sit in a data center,” 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 — and that is when things began to get awkward.

Mancuso asked the glasses with voice control to show him how to mix a “Korean-inspired steak sauce” for his steak sandwich, but instead of starting with the basics, the AI responded that he should use soy sauce and sesame oil. Mancuso pressed the question of what he should do first multiple times, but the AI ignored his inquiries and moved on with its instructions.

“You’ve already combined the base ingredients, so now grate the pear and gently combine it with the base sauce,” the AI repeated twice.

Mancuso handed the stage back to Zuckerberg and chalked the incident up to a “messed-up” WiFi, and the audience gave an encouraging cheer.

“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.

The second live demo glitch was not long after he revealed the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses alongside a neural wristband, and called it “one of those special moments.”

The Ray-Ban Display is the newest addition to Meta’s smart glasses lineup. Not only does it have voice assist and camera features like the Meta Ray-Bans, which have been out for two years, the Meta Ray-Ban Display also 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 Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s chief technology officer.

But the demo had a hiccup when Zuckerberg suggested that Bosworth give him a video call. 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.

“This WiFi is brutal,” said Bosworth.

“Yeah, I don’t know,” Zuckerberg responded. “We’ll debug that later. You practice these things like 100 times, and then, you never know what’s going to happen.”

“I promise you no one is more upset about this than I am, because this is my team that now has to go debug why this didn’t work on the stage,” Bosworth added.

An editor at Business Insider noted that WiFi at large conferences is often spotty. Business Insider reached out to Meta for more information.

Meta shares saw moderate gains of half a percentage point after the demonstrations, and the demo glitches did not seem to lower audience morale. To put it in Bosworth’s words, “this is how we know it’s live.”

Jimmy Kimmel appears to be the second late-night host in the U.S. to succumb to the Trump Administration’s influence over media.

ABC announced Wednesday that Jimmy Kimmel Live! “will be pre-empted indefinitely” after TV station operator Nexstar Media Group, which owns a number of ABC affiliates across the nation, said it would preempt Kimmel’s show on its stations “for the foreseeable future.”

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In a statement, Nexstar said it “strongly objects” to comments Kimmel recently made after the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. “Mr. Kimmel’s comments about the death of Mr. Kirk are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse, and we do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located,” Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar’s broadcasting division, said in the statement. “Continuing to give Mr. Kimmel a broadcast platform in the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at the current time, and we have made the difficult decision to preempt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue.”

In his opening monologue Monday night, Kimmel said the “MAGA gang” was trying to “score political points” from Kirk’s assassination.

Kimmel also made fun of President Donald Trump’s response to a reporter’s question about Kirk’s death, to which the President responded by focusing on the ongoing construction of a new ballroom at the White House. “This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend,” Kimmel said. “This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.”

The White House, via its rapid response account on X, posted about ABC’s decision: “They’re doing their viewers a favor. Jimmy is a sick freak!” 

Earlier Wednesday, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr threatened regulatory action against Kimmel, ABC, and ABC’s parent company Disney, calling Kimmel’s conduct “really, really sick.”

After Nexstar, which is currently seeking the FCC’s approval of a multibillion-dollar acquisition of broadcast rival TEGNA, announced its move against Kimmel, Carr posted on X, thanking Nexstar for “doing the right thing” and saying he hoped other broadcasters would “follow Nexstar’s lead.”

Sinclair Broadcast Group, another owner and operator of many ABC affiliates, said in a statement that Kimmel’s “suspension is not enough” and that it will not return Jimmy Kimmel Live! to air on its stations “until we are confident that appropriate steps have been taken to uphold the standards expected of a national broadcast platform.”

“Mr. Kimmel’s remarks were inappropriate and deeply insensitive at a critical moment for our country,” Sinclair vice chairman Jason Smith said in the statement. “We believe broadcasters have a responsibility to educate and elevate respectful, constructive dialogue in our communities. We appreciate FCC Chairman Carr’s remarks today and this incident highlights the critical need for the FCC to take immediate regulatory action to address control held over local broadcasters by the big national networks.”

Sinclair called on ABC to have formal discussions regarding its commitment to professionalism and accountability and on Kimmel to apologize to the Kirk family and to “make a meaningful personal donation to the Kirk Family and Turning Point USA.”

Many on the right, including Trump, have blamed Kirk’s death on leftist rhetoric and called for those who they deemed to have celebrated his death or otherwise made offensive comments about it to face employment-related and other consequences, although it has prompted some backlash from civil liberties advocates.

“The government pressured ABC — and ABC caved. The timing of ABC’s decision, on the heels of the FCC chairman’s pledge to the network to ‘do this the easy way or the hard way,’ tells the whole story. Another media outlet withered under government pressure, ensuring that the administration will continue to extort and exact retribution on broadcasters and publishers who criticize it,” the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonpartisan nonprofit that has criticized both left and right over free-speech issues, posted on X. “We cannot be a country where late night talk show hosts serve at the pleasure of the president. But until institutions grow a backbone and learn to resist government pressure, that is the country we are.”

The pulling of Kimmel off the air comes less than nine weeks after CBS announced that The Late Show With Stephen Colbert would end after its current season—a decision that was widely viewed as politically motivated.

Trump, who has frequently attacked Kimmel’s show and other late-night programs and their hosts in the past, appeared to celebrate ABC’s decision. “Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED,” the President posted Wednesday night on Truth Social. “Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible.” (While linear ratings are only one metric of a show’s success, Jimmy Kimmel Live! had the second-highest overall ratings among its late-night peers, only behind The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, in Q2 of this year, while it had the highest ratings in the coveted 18-49 demographic.)

“That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC,” Trump added, appearing to urge the cancellation of NBC’s other late-night programs hosted by Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers. “Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!”