Screens have been an integral part of the digital revolution, starting from clunky computers to laptops and then to mobile phones, but their days might be numbered.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has painted a futuristic picture of a world where screens, as we know them, become relics of the past, much like flip phones are today. He envisions a future dominated by augmented reality (AR) glasses and holographic projections seamlessly integrated into our physical environment. Zuckerberg’s remarks suggest a future even beyond the capabilities of current AR devices, hinting at a truly immersive digital experience.
“The chance that we look back a decade from now and all those glasses aren’t AI glasses… it’s kind of like… obviously, all the flip phones were going to become smartphones, right? I mean that was clearly a thing that was going to happen. I think that’s going to happen with glasses, too,” Zuckerberg said, hinting that all glasses of the future will be smart and powered by AI.
“But the other piece of this is that you’re going to get the ability to kind of put holograms in the world, right? So our experience with technology today is kind of funny in a way how it’s divided, where it’s like, you know, we have the physical world all around us. And then if you want to interact with something digital, you need to put a screen up, right? So maybe it’s like this, you know, you have your small glowing rectangle — your phone — with you. You have your screen. If you want to project something, you can put it up on (your phone). But I think in the not-too-distant future this should be blended together. You’ll have the physical world, but all this digital stuff should just basically be holograms, so you shouldn’t need a physical screen. There’s no reason why in the future you want to have a screen there.”
He continued, addressing the timeline for this transition: “ I’m hoping that we’ll have a version of that as a product in a few years…hopefully closer to four years or even less.”
Meta has been working on AR and VR technology for a while. The company had rebranded from Facebook to Meta to signify its focus on VR and the Metaverse in 2021. While VR technology hasn’t quite moved at the pace at which Meta seemed to have initially envisioned, Meta now seems to be focusing its attention on augmented AI glasses, and has launched a pair of AI glasses in association with Ray ban. Meta’s AI chief Yann LeCun has said that these glasses will allow users to type with their hands in their pockets in a year, and Mark Zuckerberg has previously said that these smart glasses will be the dominant computing platform by 2030. And with Zuckerberg now saying that screens themselves become obsolete going forward, it appears that among top tech companies, Meta at least continues to be extremely bullish on AR and VR.