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From Audible Originals, I'm David Brown, and this is Business Wars.

Music Wars. business wars.

Back in 2014, Google Glass, Google's foray into the smart glasses space, fell flat with consumers and failed to gain a hold in the marketplace.

Not only that, the high-tech frames also inadvertently created controversy.

Remember the glass hole backlash?

A decade later, meta changed the narrative, introducing a streamlined fashion forward approach, partnering with brands like Rayban and Oakley to make less ostentatious

smart specs. With millions of pairs now sold, the results are hard to deny. But now Google is back

in the game, hoping to give Meta a dose of healthy competition with its new Android XR Smart Glasses,

which the company just previewed at Google I.O. in May.

But as smart glasses become more mainstream and get even smarter with advances in artificial intelligence,

more people are raising concerns about privacy,

data sharing, and facial recognition. They're questioning the ethics of how companies and their

consumers use these products. Here to unpack the ups and downs of the smart glasses evolution,

our Wired Senior Gear editor Julian Chokatu and Wired staff writer Boone Ashworth.

The two have tried on their fair share of frames on Wired's gear desk.

We'll talk about how meta emerged as the leader in the space and dive into the privacy debate,

and later we'll get Julian and Boone's thoughts on their test drive of Google's brand new Android XR glasses and talk about

where the industry might be headed next. So pop in those earbuds, or maybe you've got a pair of

audio-enabled smart frames, you're going to want to pull them out because that's all coming up next.

When a charming neurosurgeon rode into western towns selling a persona of confidence and care,

...