Halo is launching AI-powered smart glasses that record, transcribe, and display info from every conversation in real time. The glasses, called Halo X, promise to “make you super intelligent the moment you put them on” and “give you infinite memory,” say co-founders AnhPhu Nguyen and Caine Ardayfio.
The glasses listen constantly and pop up answers or facts during chats—like responding instantly if someone asks a tricky question. They rely on Google’s Gemini and Perplexity for AI, with Gemini handling math/reasoning and Perplexity pulling live info from the web.
Pre-orders open Wednesday at $249. Halo raised $1 million led by Pillar VC, with backing from Soma Capital, Village Global, and Morningside Venture. The founders moved from Harvard to a Bay Area hacker hostel to build this. 
Their past work includes a controversial facial recognition demo for Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses. They showed how easily Meta’s tech could be hijacked to dox strangers—a privacy red flag. Now, Halo sees Meta’s shaky reputation on user privacy as a chance to beat them to market with always-on utility.
The Halo X glasses record audio without an external recording indicator light, unlike Meta’s glasses. The founders say recordings are transcribed and audio deleted, with data encrypted and compliant with SOC 2 audits (still in progress). They rely on users to respect consent laws, but privacy experts warn of potential misuse and threats to public privacy norms.
The glasses don’t have cameras yet, but one might be added later. They connect to an app on your phone for AI processing since the glasses themselves lack power.
Here’s Nguyen on Meta’s privacy risk:
“Meta doesn’t have a great reputation for caring about user privacy, and for them to release something that’s always there with you — which obviously brings a ton of utility — is just a huge reputational risk for them that they probably won’t take before a startup does it at scale first.”
Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Eva Galperin raised concerns about covert recording normalization:
“Small and discreet recording devices are not new.”
“In some ways, this sounds like a variation on the microphone spy pen.”
“But I think that normalizing the use of an always-on recording device, which in many circumstances would require the user to get the consent of everyone within recording distance, eats away at the expectation of privacy we have for our conversations in all kinds of spaces.”
The founders confirm users must follow “two-party consent” laws in certain U.S. states but put responsibility on customers.
Despite the promise, trust remains a hurdle. The duo tested facial recognition tech on passers-by without consent last year. They haven’t released their code but showed the potential for abuse in demos.
The glasses debut without cameras, tether to a smartphone app, and offer real-time AI prompts to boost your “vibe thinking,” according to Ardayfio.
Asked about pop culture know-how, Ardayfio said:
“‘The Witcher’ season four will be released on Netflix in 2025, but there’s no exact date yet. Most sources expect it in the second half of 2025.”
“I don’t know if that’s correct.”
Halo X aims to be the first widely available always-on AI eyewear, but privacy battles are brewing before it hits the mainstream.
