The Watching Issue / 02
Forget Big Brother, the whole world is watching you…
George Orwell is spinning in his grave. If 1984 was his prediction of just how badly humans would handle the development of surveillance technology, then I’d say he could be called an optimist.
Earlier this year, when Meta recruited an array of celebrities to endorse and attempt to integrate the use of its AI glasses into everyday life, for ordinary people, it felt as though we took another step towards living in a fully-fledged Black Mirror episode.
“A company cannot and does not care about women’s views or experiences unless it can get them sales.”
George Orwell is spinning in his grave. If 1984 was his prediction of just how badly humans would handle the development of surveillance technology, then I’d say he could be called an optimist.
Earlier this year, when Meta recruited an array of celebrities to endorse and attempt to integrate the use of its AI glasses into everyday life, for ordinary people, it felt as though we took another step towards living in a fully-fledged Black Mirror episode.
Of all the celebrities involved in Meta’s marketing campaign, the most prolific and also, I would argue, most interesting face is Kylie Jenner’s.
Meta’s thought process is almost transparent. Jenner is the company’s way in with the group most concerned about the repercussions of widespread use of camera-enabled glasses: young women.
With such a vast social media reach and experience in selling fashion and beauty ideals and ‘essentials’ to women and girls, Kylie Jenner is the perfect marketing tool to make it seem as though these glasses are yet another stepping stone towards achieving so-called ‘perfection’.
Meta’s recruitment of such a prominent female face addresses an issue that it has been facing from the first. The loudest opposition to the latest development in surveillance technology has largely comprised of young women, who cite concerns with the invasiveness involved in the social media content produced by these glasses, much of which involves women being filmed without their knowledge or consent.
The endorsement by Kylie Jenner, who, along with her family, has had such a profoundly negative impact on the perception of the female body and experience through her previous work in fashion and beauty, of this technology feels like a slap in the face to anyone concerned with women’s privacy and safety.
The most prominent issue surrounding the integration of this type of technology into day-to-day life is the gradual erosion of personal privacy that we can already see developing.
News sites and social media have been flooded with stories of women being approached in public by people who they were unaware were wearing AI glasses, only to end up seeing themselves posted online, often in misogynistic ‘pick-up’ content, presented alongside views by which those being filmed do not stand.
Many women report that after asking the glasses-wearer to take the content down, they are faced with refusal or being told that they will have to pay an exorbitant price to have the video of them removed.
In addition to the harmful effect that AI in itself has had online through deepfakes and manipulation of women’s images, the unchecked use of glasses like Meta’s only creates another unnecessary and unfair consideration for women, now not only online, but in public too.
Jenner’s involvement nevertheless turns Meta’s glasses into the latest social media commodity and creates a talking point. Here I am now. General environmental and ethical concerns with AI itself aside, there has been no lack of opposition to the concept of camera-enabled glasses online, driving the product to the forefront of public interest.
Clearly adept at making an audience feel as though they have no choice but to buy into an item or lifestyle, Meta’s use of Jenner’s image to cater to a female audience does make sense.
The lack of concern around female privacy and consent is disappointing but unsurprising. What makes this marketing campaign so egregious is its pretence of care about women.
Meta has proved that it doesn’t care about women’s experiences, its lawsuit against Sarah Wynn-Williams and her memoir slating the company being a notable example.
This makes the marketing of these glasses, which hinges on capturing the wearer’s first-person point-of-view, at the very least hard to swallow.
Meta is a corporation, and, just like any beauty or fashion company, it offers a pretence of thought and care about its target audience while actively contributing to a worsening of their experience, be it through unattainable standards for the female body or a complete disregard for women’s privacy.
A company cannot and does not care about women’s views or experiences unless it can get them sales, which the recruitment of celebrities like Kylie Jenner undoubtedly will.
The backlash faced by Meta surrounding the Meta AI glasses has been intense, but clearly not unassailable. As more and more celebrities jump on the bandwagon of perpetuating an increasingly Orwellian society, female safety and autonomy are increasingly put in jeopardy.
As long as people continue to be vocal about their concerns surrounding this surveillance technology, however, it will never be fully integrated or accepted in mainstream society and culture.
The world is watching for what companies with products like AI glasses in development will do next - the real question is if they are watching us back…