Meta Partners With Anduril to Develop XR Headsets for US Military
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Yeah, this sounds totally normal and safe and not a risk to anybody or anything at all, while also being totally on-brand for 2025.
Today, Meta, in partnership with XR company Anduril, has announced a new project which will see the two companies design new VR and AR elements for American military troops.
As per Anduril:
'Anduril and Meta are partnering to design, build, and field a range of integrated XR products that provide warfighters with enhanced perception and enable intuitive control of autonomous platforms on the battlefield. The capabilities enabled by the partnership will draw on more than a decade of investment by both companies in advanced hardware, software, and artificial intelligence.'
So Meta's now building tech to help the U.S. Defense Force in field battles. Sounds fine, all good, should be a good use of Meta's data.
And the deal does, of course, make logical sense. Meta's made significant advancements in AR and VR technologies, especially in regards to compacting the key elements of such into smaller, more lightweight units, primarily to enhance consumer utility.
Anduril, meanwhile, is focused on developing the next generation of military technology, and was founded by former Meta VR chief Palmer Luckey, who brings vast expertise and experience on this front.
Though Luckey also has a controversial history, which includes being fired from Meta back in 2016 for making donations to a questionable pro-Trump group.
Well, Luckey claims that was the reason, though Meta has refuted the idea that his political leanings were to blame for his unscheduled departure. But either way, Meta and Luckey moved away from each other due to differences in opinion of some sort, which they're now seemingly willing to work through as part of this new project.
So what, exactly, will Meta and Anduril be working on?
According to The Washington Post, the main initial focus will be a new military headset, as part of a project called 'EagleEye.'
Anduril, which took over development of the U.S. Army's Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) from Microsoft in February, is looking to advance the project beyond Microsoft's original version, which had been built upon Microsoft's HoloLens 2 device.
The Anduril version will incorporate night-vision and thermal-sensing, along with advanced augmented reality capabilities. Which is where Meta comes in.
As noted, Meta has already developed a range of new chips and processing units for its coming AR glasses, and has made significant advances in compact AR tech.
Meta's main aim with this is to build AR glasses that can be worn around in your day-to-day life, reducing weight, while also making them more stylish looking.
And while style is less of a concern in combat situations, weight and processing power is important, which is why the new partnership with Anduril makes sense.
It just feels a little off to be letting Meta into the military, right? Like, they already have all of our data, and they're building AI systems on the back of such. If there were ever a pathway to T-800 type Terminator robots, this could well be it (T-800 being the Arnold type, not the shapeshifting T-1000).
Sci-fi hypotheticals aside, the partnership will be beneficial, and both Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg and Luckey have expressed their excitement in working with each other again.
So, soon soldiers will be able to post IG Stories updates from the field, by simply speaking a few commands into their headset.
Should be fine. Right?
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