The story begins in 2011 with Stanford students creating early prototypes of recording glasses, leading to the founding of Vergence Labs and their Epiphany Eyewear. After a failed Kickstarter, they raised funds via Indiegogo and caught the attention of investors, including Mark Zuckerberg. Meanwhile, Google co-founder Sergey Brin pushed for augmented reality glasses, leading to the dramatic debut of Google Glass at Google I/O. However, Google Glass faced backlash over privacy concerns, coining the term 'Glasshole,' and failed to gain consumer traction. Snapchat saw an opportunity and acquired Vergence Labs, launching Spectacles via playful vending machines. Despite initial hype, Spectacles sales slumped. Meta later copied the design with Ray-Ban Stories, and the addition of generative AI transformed them into a buzzy hardware product, raising new concerns about data privacy and surveillance, as highlighted by data labelers in Nairobi training AI on sensitive footage.