“I’m recording you right now and you probably can’t tell, because there’s no annoying little blinking light on these glasses,” a creator boasting nearly half a million followers declares in an August TikTok video. “I’m gonna be the first one to tell you, go save that $400, and grab some of these from TikTok Shop.”
A disclaimer on the video denotes that the creator is “eligible for commission,” meaning that if a follower clicks through a shopping tag included on the video, he may get an affiliate kickback. That shopping tag directs viewers to a TikTok Shop page hawking a range of wireless camera- and AI-equipped glasses. The glasses appear to be on perma-sale, and go for about $40 to $100.
It’s just one of many TikTok Shop pages that market far-cheaper knockoffs — or “dupes” — of the tech giant Meta’s AI Glasses. The imitations are sold on TikTok Shop, Amazon, Temu, Walmart, and other marketplaces under a rotating mill of junky brand names, and are expressly promoted by many affiliate commission-seeking creators on TikTok as cheaper alternatives to Meta’s market-leading spectacles, which go for several hundred dollars.
But the price difference isn’t the only feature that some creators point to as a reason to pick up the knockoffs. In some cases, according to influencer videos we reviewed, a key part of the pitch is that unlike Meta’s smart glasses, the cheaper spectacles allegedly don’t feature a recording light designed to signal to those around a wearer that they’re being recorded.
