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Meta Deletes Face-Recognition System From Its Smart Glasses App After WIRED Report
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One day after WIRED revealed that Meta had quietly embedded an unreleased face-recognition system into an app installed on more than 50 million phones, the company removed it, according to a WIRED analysis of the latest version’s code.
Key facts
- One day after WIRED revealed that Meta had quietly embedded an unreleased face-recognition system into an app installed on more than 50 million phones, the company removed it, according to a WIRED
- On Thursday, WIRED reported that Meta had quietly integrated substantial portions of the NameTag system into the Meta AI app
- Meta did not answer WIRED's questions about why the code was removed or whether the changes were planned before WIRED's story was published
- The version published the day of WIRED’s report included several code libraries explicitly named for face recognition
Summary
The most recent version of Meta AI, a companion app for its line of smart glasses, strips out the unactivated software components that powered the system Meta internally called NameTag. Andy Stone, Meta's vice president of communications, told WIRED on Monday that the feature is purely exploratory, adding: “No final decision has been made on what to do here, if anything.” On Thursday, WIRED reported that Meta had quietly integrated substantial portions of the NameTag system into the Meta AI app. NameTag first surfaced in February, when The New York Times, citing internal Meta documents, reported that the company was developing face recognition for its smart glasses and weighing a launch as soon as this year.