Sergey Brin, the man who is most responsible for Google Glass, is out of retirement and back with the company he feels and helped make AI happen. He also proclaims a new kind of “glass” or, more precisely, Android XR smart glasses while admitting some big Google Glass mistakes.
Brin unexpectedly took the stage on Google I/O 2025 for a Sitdown with Big Technology Podcast’s Alex Kantrowitz and Deepminds CEO Demis Hassabis on Tuesday. While the discussion was mostly about Gemini, Google’s Generative AI platform, Kantrowitz Brin asked what he learned from the Google Glass experience and how he could apply it to the modern Android XR glasses.
With stiffening light, Brin Kanttrowitz told, “I definitely want I made a lot of mistakes with Google Glass, I want to be honest.”
It is quite a recording from Brin, who more than a decade ago was Google Glass’s biggest champion and was memorable host of a launch with Wing-Suit Skydivers leaving a plane while carrying Google Glass. It was a spectacular moment, but even brin is now seeing a mistake and how he might avoid a similar wrongly.
When he talked about how much he missed the big launch moment, Brin turned attention to the new XR glasses’ own launch. “Maybe … We should probably polish the product this time when it’s ready and accessible, and then we make a really cool demo. So it’s probably a smart move.”
Brin can see the stains and the ultimate failure of Google Glass, the first laptop smart glasses that let you use movements, head slopes and even flashes to take a picture, but there was a moment between 2012 to 2014 when Google Glass was everywhere.
I wore my pair for a fashion show and ces and at several network -TV shows. Brin was spotted on the subway wearing his. They were a cultural phenomenon for a while, but also ridiculous, almost as quickly to shatter the meme “glass rolls”.
Would be cool if this guy reappeared at #googleio. This is from a decade ago (at another event) when Sergey showed me how to take a selfie with Google Glass Pic.twitter.com/y0zlrmyr5cMay 14, 2024
Still, I appreciated Brin’s enthusiasm, and as I ran into him more than a decade ago, while carrying Google Glass, he naturally took the time to show me how to take a selfie with Google Glass (yes, it involved removing them from your face).
Glass suffered early accessibility and price problems ($ 1,500 / £ 1,000, or around AU $ 2,000) and Brin points to his naivety as the reason: “I just didn’t know anything about consumer electronics supply chains really and how hard it would be to build it and have it at a reasonable price …. This time we have big partners to help us.”
The point here is that instead of Google trying to find out some of this, it now has companies like Samsung, Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, all experts in building consumer products, supply chains and retail prices, building Android XR glasses for them.
AI will make the clear difference
Google Glass faded into Ignominy, but Brin sees Google’s return to smart glasses in a fresh light, and it’s mostly because of his new pet project on Google: AI and Gemini.
Apart from the form factor, which did not look like normal glasses, Google Glass could have been ahead of its time. They were “smart” without really having anyone’s true smart.
“Now, in the AI world,” said Brin, “the things these glasses can do to help you without constantly distracting you, this capacity is much higher.” And it potentially interacts with Android XR glasses much more natural. That’s also why Google and its partners put Gemini in the middle of these Android XR laptops.
Finally, Hassabis, who had seen the whole exchange, chimled in, “I feel like the universal assistant is the killer app for smart glasses, and I think that’s what makes it work.”
All this makes sense; A strong AI who sits resident on your face in a well -known form factor that asks for nothing but voting commands to make your bid but can also see and act on your behalf. It is the future of smart glasses, and one that Google Glass strived for but never achieved.
Android XR glasses will be Brin’s second smart glasses, and maybe the one he will eventually be remembered best for.
