I paid $299 for glasses that remember everything

These AI glasses promise perfect memory - but at what cost?

Yesterday, I paid $299 USD for a pair of glasses that don't exist yet.

They won't arrive until later in the year and when they do, they could either change my life, or make parts of my career irrelevant.

So yeah. These aren't just ordinary glasses.

They're called Halo by Brilliant Labs (no affiliation), and they're basically Wikipedia on my face: a micro-display in one lens, speakers in my ear, and an assistant called Noa (the equivalent of Siri or Alexa) that remembers everything I forget.

And when I say everything, I mean everything.

Imagine in the morning, Chris tells me, "Hey, can you grab some mozzarella while you're at the shops?"

Fast forward two hours, I'm walking past the dairy aisle, and, my glasses whisper to me: "Remember Chris asked for mozzarella."

That's eerie, uncanny recall.

Can you imagine?!

Every conversation, every promise captured and replayable.

It's giving Black Mirror vibes.

So why on earth am I buying into it?

Well, I'm interested in technology AND I think there are some fun use cases.

Let's imagine a day in the life of Leanne wearing her new glasses in December 2025…

5.30am: I wake up. My phone is in the next room. I enjoy a leisurely coffee. I pop my glasses on and it tells me, "Good morning, Leanne! The weather right now is 26 degrees with 70% humidity. Ready to go for your run?"

6.05am as I'm out jogging… My glasses monitor my pace and whispers, "Push hard for the next 200 metres and you'll hit a negative split." I ask it to play Bon Jovi, and Living on a Prayer makes me go that little bit faster.

7.32am out walking with the dogs, I notice a palm with bright orange flowers. Normally, I'd mean to Google it later (and never would). This time, I say, "Hey Noa, what's that?". It responds: A Foxtail Palm, native to Queensland, blooms twice a year.

Oh, and I didn't have to wrangle leads to grab my phone from my pocket.

9.15am: I'm in Brisbane city and decide to head to a new café that has superb reviews. Instead of staring down at Google Maps on my watch, I look straight ahead because arrows hover in my vision, guiding me through Brisbane's laneways.

1.00pm: I'm hosting a session with 15 leaders. I'm okay at remembering everyone's name but with the glasses, I can see every person's name quietly hovering in my lens.

I ask Noa to capture the three key issues that have surfaced in the first hour and to prioritise what’s most immediate, based on the situational context + competitor landscape.

5:00pm After the session, I meet up with a friend and go to an Italian restaurant. When the wine list lands, I ask my glasses to review my options. Noa flashes reviews and then suggests: "Arianna Occhipinti SP68, earthy, floral, bright finish." I order with confidence and feel like I've been drinking obscure Italian natural wines my whole life.

Isn't this extraordinary?

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But also: 5 reasons I might regret this

The upside is intoxicating.

The downside? So much… but here’s five to start:

1. My brain will atrophy. If I stop exercising my memory muscle, what happens to all those cognitive muscles I’ve been sharpening over the years?

2. Will people hate me because I suddenly know it all? I’ll be that annoying person that can fact check EVERYTHING, in the moment. I’ll never be wrong!

3. The creep factor is real. These glasses will create a searchable log of every side comment, every moment that was meant to be private or forgotten. But it goes deeper than that. What happens when I'm having a private conversation, or when a friend confides something sensitive? And who else might access this data? And what about consent - not just mine, but everyone else who enters my field of view or earshot?

4. Will I start outsourcing everything? What happens when the battery dies? Do I suddenly not trust my own judgment?

5. Could these glasses make me irrelevant? Why attend leadership training when you can access an AI coach mid-conversation? Maybe I'm pre-ordering the very technology that will force me to reinvent my work.

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…Or maybe it’s all just clunky sci-fi

The gear could be clunky, maybe Brilliant Labs are overpromising their vision (pun intended)?

But my gut says we're at the iPhone moment for wearables.

So when my Halo glasses arrive in December, I'll keep you posted on the breakthroughs, the fails, and the inevitable moments when I want to throw them in the Brisbane River.

👉 Would you wear them, or is this a "not in a million years" for you?

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Update: AI recruiters are already making an imapct

I received a lot of pushback about the idea of AI recruiters when I wrote this article.

My job interview with the enemy

Well, now there’s new data.

Greg Isenberg shared a study of 70,000 job applicants in the Philippines. Half were interviewed by humans, half by AI voice agents. The recruiters running the study assumed the AI would fail - worse interviews, fewer offers, weaker hires.

They were wrong.

Applicants interviewed by AI actually ended up with:

• More job offers

• Higher retention rates

• Fewer reports of gender discrimination

When given the choice, nearly 8 out of 10 applicants preferred being interviewed by AI.

Why? Because the AI was more consistent, less judgmental, and didn’t skip questions.

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What do you think of all this new tech? Hit the ♥ below if you’re also half-terrified, half-fascinated by where this is going.

🌴

Leanne “Haven’t even considered if the glasses suit my face” Hughes

p.s. Join Alan Weiss and me for our next Talk the Walk LinkedIn Livestream on how to Create a Community of Clients (11 Sep 5pm ET / 12 Sep 7am AEST)

p.p.s. In case you missed it, Con Con 2026 is on the Gold Coast in June… and as of writing, only 2 spots remain.