Why OpenAI Isn’t Building Smart Glasses Anytime Soon

Tech giants including Samsung, Meta, Amazon, and reportedly Apple are racing to build smart glasses, but OpenAI doesn’t seem interested in joining them. CEO Sam Altman recently made his skepticism about the category clear in a new interview.

Altman’s Comments on Smart Glasses

Speaking with journalist Alex Heath, Altman explained why the format doesn’t appeal to him personally. He said he finds it uncomfortable talking to someone wearing a camera and a light on their face. This isn’t the first time he’s raised this concern — last year, he stated plainly that he doesn’t like smart glasses. Given these repeated comments, plus OpenAI’s apparent interest in other types of AI hardware, smart glasses look unlikely to show up in the company’s lineup anytime soon.

Not All Smart Glasses Include Cameras

Cameras aren’t actually a universal feature of smart glasses. Even Realities, for example, makes a pair with a display but no camera or speakers, built mainly for notifications, navigation, and transcription. That camera-free approach, though, remains far less common across the market.

Cameras Are Central to Most Competitors

Meta’s AI glasses put cameras front and center, offering high-resolution photo and video capture alongside computer vision features that let the device analyze its surroundings. Samsung and Google will likely take a similar approach with their upcoming glasses, and if Apple eventually enters the category, its version will probably include a camera too.

A Philosophical Divide in the Industry

Covering smart glasses closely over the past year has revealed that the category tends to spark strong opinions, even among the companies building the hardware. Even Realities CEO Will Wang has said he excluded a camera from his company’s glasses as a deliberate philosophical choice, not because of engineering limits or cost. Altman appears to share that mindset — his objections to smart glasses seem personal rather than technical.