Meta Connect 2025 was supposed to be a showcase: AI-powered smart glasses, gesture controls, real-time help in everyday tasks. Instead the event became a reminder that the best tech in the world means little without reliability. Mark Zuckerberg brought food content creator Jack Mancuso onstage to demo the “Live AI” feature of the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. Mancuso asked for help making a Korean-inspired steak sauce. The audience waited for step-by-step instructions. The AI, however, jumped ahead. It said Mancuso had “already combined the base ingredients” even though nothing had been mixed. It repeated that claim when asked what to do first. The scene felt both awkward and telling. Once again Meta blamed the WiFi. Mancuso handed back control. Zuckerberg tried to save face, quipping that after years building tech, sometimes the WiFi “on the day catches you.” The demo missteps did not end there. In another segment Zuckerberg pulled out the new Ray-Ban Display glasses equipped with a neural wristband meant to facilitate gesture controls. He attempted to accept a video call from Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth using a wrist gesture. The call refused to connect. Several attempts later Bosworth walked onstage. The failure reinforced just how fragile gesture control and wearable AI can be in real settings. This moment matters more than just face-palm material. Zuckerberg has positioned himself as the architect of Meta’s AI direction, recruiting top engineers, making bold promises. But optics count. When tech chokes live, the narrative shifts. The spotlight moves from what could be to what failed. It was hilarious in its own way. Audience chuckles, the host’s discomfort, Mancuso’s repeated “What should I do first?” and finally the cumulative embarrassment of a flagship product failing to perform the basics. But these kinds of failures also reveal where a company must tighten up: hardware interaction, voice command reliability, network dependency, gesture-based control robustness. Meta’s stock might be inching up, and "vision" is still very much a part of the brand strategy. However the danger in events like this comes when promises outpace functionality. If Ray-Ban Meta glasses are to be seen as more than aspirational, they’ll have to work under real world conditions—not just in demo mode.