Meta-Inspired AI Glasses Can Reveal Strangers’ Names and Addresses

Two Harvard students, inspired by Meta’s smart glasses, have developed an AI-enabled device dubbed ‘I-XRAY’ that raises significant privacy concerns. This device employs facial recognition technology and artificial intelligence to instantly identify people and reveal their private details.

The device was demonstrated in a video where the glasses identified strangers, revealing sensitive information such as their names, addresses, employment history, and even their parents’ names. Here’s how it operates: a computer program scans the faces it encounters and matches them to publicly available images on the internet. It then pulls up comprehensive personal details using the AI, which sends this information to a custom app developed by the creators.

The inventors, AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio from Harvard University, emphasized that their invention aims to highlight the potential uses and dangers of current technologies rather than for nefarious purposes. They stated, “The purpose of building this tool is not for misuse, and we are not releasing it. Our goal is to demonstrate the current capabilities of smart glasses, face search engines, large language models, and public databases. [We’re] raising awareness that extracting someone’s home address and other personal details from just their face on the street is possible today.”

Nguyen took to the social platform X to post a video showcasing the glasses in action, captioned, “Are we ready for a world where our data is exposed at a glance?” The video displayed the glasses’ ability to reveal personal details simply by looking at someone, utilizing existing technologies combined with an online tool called FastPeopleSearch. This tool requires just a name to fetch personal information such as home addresses, phone numbers, and other details from social media and public records.

Nguyen explained that all the data gathered is transmitted to an app they programmed on their smartphones.