Day: September 19, 2025

• Meta’s product demos at Connect faced glitches during live presentations.
• On Thursday, the CTO clarified these were demo issues, not product failures.
• The glitches were due to a WiFi overload and a bug in the new Meta Ray-Ban Display, he said.

Meta’s chief technology officer has some answers about what went wrong on Wednesday night.

In a series of Instagram stories, Andrew Bosworth spoke about what led to two instances of live product demo glitches at the company’s annual Meta Connect.

At the event, CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to the stage to reveal the second-generation Meta Ray-Bans, a neural wristband, Meta Ray-Bans Display with heads-up display, and sports-centered glasses with Oakley. Announcements were followed up by various live demos.

‘We Ddosed ourselves’

In the first awkward glitch of the night, Zuckerberg connected food content creator Jack Mancuso to the big screen for a live demo on how the newly upgraded Ray Ban Meta glasses could help Mancuso cook.

Mancuso asked the glasses with voice control to show him how to mix a “Korean-inspired steak sauce” for his steak sandwich. Instead of starting with the basic steps, the AI responded that he should use soy sauce and sesame oil. Mancuso asked what he should do first multiple times, but the AI ignored his inquiries and moved on with its instructions.

“The irony of the whole thing is that you spend years making technology and then the WiFi at the day catches you,” Zuckerberg said before moving on.

On an Instagram story he uploaded on Thursday, Bosworth explained what went wrong.

“I know the product works, I know it has the goods,” Bosworth said. “It really was a demo fail and not a product failure.”

Bosworth said that when the chef asked the glasses to start live AI, it started live AI for every single pair of Meta glasses in the building.

“We DDoSed ourselves,” the CTO said, referring to a cyberattack where multiple systems flood a target server with overwhelming internet traffic. “It didn’t happen in rehearsal because we didn’t have as many people with the glasses in the building.”

Missed ‘legendary status’

Wednesday’s second live demo fail occurred not long after Zuckerberg revealed the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses alongside a neural wristband.

The Ray-Ban Display is the newest addition to Meta’s smart glasses lineup. It has a heads-up display, or HUD, that appears on the right side of the glasses to deliver notifications and navigation prompts without requiring users to look down at a phone.

During the live demo of the Meta Ray-Ban Display, Zuckerberg used the wristband to type messages to Bosworth. On Thursday, the CTO said that the band’s typing feature will be out in December.

When Zuckerberg suggested that Bosworth give him a video call, the demo had a hiccup. The CEO repeated hand motions with the wristband in attempts to pick up the calls, but none worked, before Bosworth came to the rescue in person.

“The video call issue was actually quite a bit more obscure,” Bosworth said on Thursday’s Instagram story. “A never-before-seen bug, in a new product.”

“The display had gone to sleep at the very instant that the notification had come in that a call was coming,” he said. The bug meant that the answer call notification was not shown even when Zuckerberg woke the display back up.

“It’s fixed now, and that’s a terrible, terrible place for a bug to show up,” Bosworth added. “You guys know we can do video calling.”

“We missed an opportunity for legendary status with those things,” he added. “But I do think the launch was still good and people still love it.”

• Tommy Hilfiger credits his success to hard work, fearlessness, and the power of manifestation.
• “I personally do not have fear because I think that if you live with fear, it sets you back,” Hilfiger said.
• The practice of manifesting has become popular in recent years, especially on TikTok.

Tommy Hilfiger says his success comes down to hard work, no fear, and the power of manifestation.

During an appearance on Thursday’s episode of “The Burnouts” podcast, the fashion designer spoke about how he built his namesake label after his first venture failed.

“By the way, dreams come true, and you can make your dreams come true if you manifest and if you go after that goal, that north star, knowing that along the way there are going to be roadblocks and obstacles,” Hilfiger told podcast hosts Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni.

Hilfiger said he “always” thought of obstacles as opportunities.

“You have to figure out how to get over that roadblock, around it, under it, or through it. But there’s a way to get to the other side,” Hilfiger said. “And if you give up because you think there’s not a way to get to the other side, you’re cheating yourself.”

He says the roadblocks he faced along the way ultimately worked to his benefit because they forced him to think outside the box.

“I personally do not have fear because I think that if you live with fear, it sets you back,” Hilfiger said. “And I think too many people live with the fear of doing something different and new, and therefore fail.”

He says he is always focused on keeping the brand relevant and continually thinking about what comes next. For him, manifestation involves seeing inspiration, saving it for later, and bringing it to life when the time is right.

“I may have seen a photograph of the Wild West, and I think, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to do a jeans campaign in Montana or somewhere?’ And then bing, it comes up,” Hilfiger said.

“I think that if you see something you like, you remember it. And you just access it when you need it. And I think that that’s part of the manifestation, of picturing it. Have to have seen something that has some relationship to what you are planning for,” he added.

A representative for Hilfiger did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.

Manifesting has gone mainstream in recent years, especially on TikTok, where videos about manifestation tips and “lucky-girl syndrome” mantras rack up thousands of views.

Some people are also turning to AI chatbots to enhance their manifestation practices, such as visualizing goals and creating positive affirmations.

• Jon Stewart went into full satire mode while commenting on Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension.
• ABC said it was pulling “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” off the air after he commented on Charlie Kirk’s death.
• Stewart praised President Donald Trump sarcastically, calling him “our great leader.”

“The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart leaned heavily into satire on Thursday night while commenting on fellow late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension.

On Wednesday, ABC said it was pulling “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” off the air “indefinitely” after Kimmel commented on Charlie Kirk’s death in an episode that aired Monday.

“I don’t know who this Johnny Drimmel Live ABC character is. But the point is, our great administration has laid out very clear rules on free speech,” Stewart said in his opening monologue on Thursday.

Stewart usually hosts “The Daily Show” on Mondays, but the program said in an X post on Thursday that he would also be doing that day’s episode.

Thursday’s episode opened with a voiceover calling the program the “all-new, government-approved Daily Show, with your patriotically obedient host, Jon Stewart.”

“We have another fun, hilarious, administration-compliant show,” Stewart said while pretending to shush the audience when they laughed.

In his monologue, Stewart praised President Donald Trump sarcastically, calling him “our great leader” and a “perfectly tinted Trump.”

Stewart also commented on Trump’s state visit to the UK, during which a reporter had asked the president about Kimmel’s suspension.

“How dare you, sir! What outfit are you with, sir, the Antifa Herald Tribune?” Stewart said, referencing a left-wing group that Trump designated on Wednesday as a “major terrorist organization.”

“There’s a very reasonable explanation for what befell this scallywag, Kimbal,” he continued, intentionally mispelling Kimmel’s name.

The show then cut to a clip of Trump’s response, where he told the reporter that Kimmel was removed because “he had bad ratings more than anything else.”

“Now, some naysayers may argue that this administration’s speech concerns are merely a cynical ploy, a thin gruel of a ruse, a smokescreen to obscure an unprecedented consolidation of power and unitary intimidation, principleless and coldly antithetical to any experiment in a constitutional republic governance,” Stewart said.

“Some people would say that. Not me, though, I think it’s great,” he added.

Representatives for Stewart and Kimmel did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

Stewart isn’t the only late-night host who has weighed in on Kimmel.

“The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert said in his opening monologue on Thursday night that Kimmel’s removal was a “blatant assault on the freedom of speech.”

Colbert also criticized Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr in his monologue. Carr wrote in an X post on Wednesday that broadcasters need to push back on “programming that they determine falls short of community values.”

“Well, you know what my community values are, buster? Freedom of speech. Or as Alexander Hamilton called it, ‘Hakuna Matata,'” Colbert said.