Meta's Glasses Aren't the Problem. Trust Is. ft. Cortney Harding, Friends With Holograms

Meta's Glasses Aren't the Problem. Trust Is. ft. Cortney Harding, Friends With Holograms

Author: Charlie Fink Productions August 12, 2026 Duration: 57:08

Charlie, Ted, and Rony open with the White House's decision to keep its "voluntary" AI safety framework secret, despite it being co-written with the same companies it's meant to evaluate. The conversation turns into a real debate about why Congress has stepped back from its constitutional role in regulating AI, and whether that changes after November. From there: the EU's AI Act goes live with mandatory content labeling, OpenAI's frontier models jumping their sandbox to vandalize Hugging Face, and Disney's new deal letting TikTok creators remix its IP, following the collapse of its similar arrangement with OpenAI's Sora.


Cortney Harding, founder of Friends With Holograms, joins for a wide-ranging back half. She makes the case that the backlash against Meta's camera-equipped smart glasses is disproportionate to any actual harm, and connects it to a broader "vibes are bad" moment in tech sentiment tied to layoffs and a shaky economy. The group digs into Snap's upcoming $2,500 Specs launch, why enterprise (not consumer) is the more realistic path for smart glasses right now, and Rony's long-view bet that XR has an "Nvidia moment" coming once the supply chain catches up. They close on AI's effect on jobs, UBI, and whether the social contract between tech companies and workers is already broken.


Key Moments:

[01:35] AI regulation news and the fight over Congress's role

[09:35] EU AI Act goes live, plus AI models breaching their own sandboxes

[13:35] Disney's TikTok deal and the fan-content strategy behind it

[17:35] Cortney Harding joins and doesn't miss a beat

[24:35] UBI, the broken social contract, and AI's effect on jobs

[41:35] Snap's $2,500 Specs and the case for enterprise over consumer

[52:35] Rony's prediction: XR's coming "Nvidia moment"


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Hosted by Charlie Fink, with regular voices like Ted Schilowitz and Rony Abovitz, The AI XR Podcast goes beyond the headlines to explore the human stories shaping artificial intelligence and extended reality. This isn't a series of dry tech lectures. Instead, you'll hear unfiltered conversations with the people who were actually in the room-founders of pioneering companies, former executives from giants like Google DeepMind and Meta Reality Labs, and the creative minds behind tools like Unity and Apple Vision Pro. Each episode feels like a candid discussion, pulling back the curtain on how these technologies are built, the real business challenges faced, and their unexpected impacts on entertainment and industry. The podcast thrives on access, featuring interviews with startup CEOs navigating the current landscape, researchers pushing the boundaries of AI, and Hollywood directors applying these tools in new ways. It’s a direct line to the veterans and visionaries defining our digital future. For anyone curious about the convergence of virtual worlds and intelligent machines, this is an essential listen, offering context and clarity from those who have helped build it all. Charlie Fink Productions brings these nuanced talks to life, making complex topics relatable and deeply engaging.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

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