AI Glasses That Have Something All Others are Missing | Bobak Tavangar
In this episode of An Hour of Innovation podcast, host Vit Lyoshin sits down with Bobak Tavangar, Co-Founder & CEO of Brilliant Labs, and one of the most forward-thinking voices in wearable AI. Bobak shares why he left Apple to champion open-source hardware, how Brilliant Labs is building AI glasses that protect privacy by design, and why he believes the next era of computing should amplify human agency, not undermine it.
Together, they explore the philosophy and engineering behind Halo, the world’s first open-source AI glasses with real-time AI memory, multimodal sensing, and 14-hour battery life packed into a lightweight frame. Bobak explains how his team solved enormous challenges in hardware design, why most competitors rely on off-the-shelf components, and why building ethical, human-first AI requires total transparency from the ground up.
The conversation goes into the future of wearable AI, from personal memory systems to real-world contextual assistance, and explores the deeper human questions behind technology: Will AI make us smarter or weaker? How do we maintain agency as AI becomes more integrated into daily life? And what does the future of computing look like when privacy, openness, and human connection are at the center?
Bobak Tavangar is a former Program Lead at Apple, a serial founder in computer vision and graph search, and now CEO of Brilliant Labs. He’s a design-first innovator who blends engineering with philosophy, an open-source advocate pushing for transparent, trustworthy AI, and a creator inspired by the Baha’i principle of oneness, building technology that strengthens human connection rather than weakens it.
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Takeaways
- AI glasses can amplify human agency, not replace it, when built with the right philosophy.
- Brilliant Labs designed the first wearable AI platform that is open-source.
- Privacy is central: the device never stores photos or audio, only encrypted embeddings.
- True innovation in hardware requires painstaking component selection and constant iteration.
- The future of computing must align more naturally with human biology than smartphones do.
- AI should be a thought partner, not a substitute for human thinking.
- Overreliance on AI can lead to cognitive atrophy, according to emerging research.
- Open-source systems are essential for trust, transparency, and user control.
- AI memory has the potential to revolutionize learning, recall, accessibility, and life organization.
- Building AI glasses requires deep integration with factories, not just a software mindset.
- Wearable AI may eventually reduce our reliance on smartphones, but the market will decide, not the company.
- Future AI devices should foster connection and human well-being, not distraction or ad monetization.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
03:13 Why He Left Apple: The Case for Open-Source AI Glasses
06:00 Why the Next Big Tech Shift Is AI Hardware
09:06 How Brilliant Labs Built Halo: From Idea to Prototype
11:31 What AI Glasses Can Do Today: Memory, Recall, Real-Time Assistance
14:32 AI Memory Explained: How Glasses Learn From Your Life
17:11 The Hardest Problems in AI Hardware: Battery, Sensors, Design
23:59 Meta vs Open-Source: Competing Visions for AI Glasses
30:53 The Future of Wearable AI: Use Cases, Apps, and Developer Tools
35:08 Privacy by Design: Why Brilliant Labs Stores Zero Images or Audio
40:05 Will AI Make Us Smarter or Weaker? The Human Agency Debate
46:56 What Life With AI Glasses Could Look Like in 5–10 Years
50:56 Will Wearable AI Replace Phones? Early Signals for the Future
54:31 Hard Lessons Learned Building Real AI Hardware
01:00:01 Innovation Q&A Round
Connect with Bobak
- Website: https://brilliant.xyz/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobak-tavangar-29445012/
- X: https://x.com/btavangar
Connect with Vit
- Substuck: https://substack.com/@vitlyoshin
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vit-lyoshin/
- X: https://x.com/vitlyoshin
Vit’s Other Project
- AI Booking Assistant: https://appforgelab.com/
