Former Meta Architect Challenges Big Tech's Grip on Personal AI
Ash Saulsbury, who helped build Meta Platforms Inc.'s smart glasses technology, has launched Awear AI. The company aims to empower consumers to switch between different smart eyewear brands without losing their personal AI assistant data.
Ash Saulsbury, leveraging his experience as a systems architect at Apple and a product lead at Meta Platforms Inc., is aiming to disrupt the dominance of major technology companies in personal artificial intelligence. His new venture, Awear AI, has introduced the Agentic System One (AS-One) platform, designed to allow users to transfer their AI assistant's accumulated knowledge across different smart eyewear brands without data loss.
Saulsbury spent seven years at Apple before joining Meta, where he led wearable reality products and contributed to the development of smart glasses technology. He described Meta's early smart glasses project as an extension of its advertising business, aiming to boost engagement and ad opportunities through easier content creation. He later served as VP of architecture for Microsoft's mixed-reality products.
Awear AI intends to give consumers the freedom to choose smart eyewear without the fear of losing their data. The AS-One platform is available for eyewear manufacturers to integrate into their products, starting with glasses powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon AR1+ processor. "We make it extremely difficult for anyone, including ourselves, to access your data," Saulsbury stated, contrasting his approach with proprietary systems.
Co-founded with Lila Tretikov, former deputy CTO at Microsoft, and Jan Eißfeldt, Awear AI plans to generate revenue by providing valuable services rather than profiting from direct access to consumer information. The company emphasizes user control and transparency over personal data and the functionalities of AI assistants.
As tech giants like Apple reportedly advance their own smart glasses plans, Awear AI seeks to differentiate itself by offering openness and user sovereignty. The company intends to make its memory transfer format and data-sharing rules openly available, drawing parallels to Tretikov's experience leading the Wikimedia Foundation, where trust is built through structural protection and open licensing.