Meta’s chief technology officer decrees the end of the smartphone

The symbolic device of this transition is represented by smart glasses, now defined as the dominant hardware category of the AI ​​era, with a commercial success comparable to that of the most widespread consumer electronics. However, the real revolution described by Bosworth lies in the interface: the Meta Neural Band. It is a wrist-worn device that uses electromyography to translate nerve signals into digital commands. The declared objective is to tighten the circle between human intention and machine action, overcoming the historical limits of mice and touchscreens. Thanks to generalizable models that do not require complex calibrations, this technology promises to evolve rapidly, moving from simple gestures to complex inputs such as freehand writing decoded directly from neural signals.

The Meta executive’s vision is of a system that does not require constant user attention, but acts as a natural extension of human capabilities. The glasses, equipped with a display and contextual intelligence, will make it possible to amplify the senses, for example isolating the voice of an interlocutor in crowded environments or providing proactive assistance without it being explicitly requested. It is a paradigm shift compared to today’s digital life, confined within luminous rectangles that remove the individual from the surrounding world.

On the virtual reality front, the boundary between physical and digital is further blurred thanks to advanced rendering technologies such as Gaussian splatting. With the introduction of Hyperscape, Meta aims to allow users to scan and faithfully replicate real environments, transforming them into shareable virtual spaces with an unprecedented level of photorealism. Artificial intelligence plays a dual role here, facilitating not only the reproduction of reality but also the generation from scratch of complex three-dimensional worlds starting from simple textual descriptions, democratizing the creation of immersive content.

The prospects for the near future see a convergence of these technologies towards an ecosystem in which the metaverse and robotics benefit from the same innovations developed for viewers and wearable devices. The creation of a new robotics research laboratory in 2025 confirms the intention to apply AI’s spatial understanding to physical machines as well. Menlo Park’s final challenge remains to free the user from the dictatorship of the screen, offering experiences that blend with the surrounding reality rather than replacing it, supported by a technological infrastructure that gradually becomes invisible.