Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s personal fortune has climbed to $201 billion. As he envisions AR glasses Orion to be the future of computing, will they benefit the public?

At an event in Silicon Valley, the company exhibited a range of products meant to blend the real world and virtual reality, with a healthy dose of A.I.

At Meta’s Connect developer conference, CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed off Orion, a futuristic pair of smart glasses that the company hopes will lead the next foundational shift in personal computing.

Unlike the upcoming Orion glasses that have smart lenses, the current generation Ray-Ban Meta glasses have ordinary lenses. They have speakers next to each ear, a microphone and a camera that can take still or video pictures. They can see and talk, but they can’t change what you see.

Facebook owner Meta Platforms showed off its first working prototype of augmented-reality glasses, called Orion, during its annual Connect conference on Wednesday, as the California company sketched out its aspirations for products that would bring the virtual world into the real one.

Companies like Meta and Snap aren’t ready to sell their AR wearables to consumers yet—but their latest devices show significant progress.

Meta Connect 2024 was this week, showcasing new hardware and software to support two of the company's big ambitions: AI and the metaverse. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced new Quest headsets, updates to Meta’s Llama AI model,

CNBC senior media and tech correspondent Julia Boorstin experienced Meta’s Orion AR glasses prototype, and was impressed by how lightweight they were.

Meta’s unveiling of its Orion augmented reality (AR) glasses at the Connect conference marks a significant leap in AR technology. Unlike virtual reality (VR) headsets, Orion offers a compact, lightweight alternative that overlays digital graphics onto the real world.

There's a long way to go until Meta Orion is in our hands, but there are plenty of AR glasses to keep us occupied in the meantime.