{"id":645540,"date":"2026-10-05T14:56:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T14:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/645540\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T14:56:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T14:56:17","slug":"norway-first-country-to-propose-temporary-ban-on-ai-glasses-in-public-places-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/645540\/","title":{"rendered":"Norway first country to propose temporary ban on AI glasses in public places \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Norway has become the first major country to propose a temporary ban on the use of artificial intelligence (AI)<\/a> glasses in selected public places amid growing privacy concerns over wearable technology.<\/p>\n

The rich Scandinavian country\u2019s centre-left government said on Monday that it would introduce a law to parliament soon on a temporary ban for places such as parks, beaches, schools and kindergartens. It will also set up an expert group to propose permanent national rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am concerned about the introduction of powerful new technology where people risk being photographed, filmed or recorded without their knowledge,\u201d said Torgeir Micaelsen, Norway\u2019s digitalisation minister. A temporary ban \u201cwill give us time to conduct a thorough assessment and hold an informed debate that can lay the foundation for permanent regulation\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

Governments around the world are grappling with how to regulate AI glasses \u2013 including those from Facebook owner Meta and cheaper copycat devices \u2013 amid worries that they are being used to film people without their consent, including children and women in settings such as changing rooms.<\/p>\n

Parts of Norwegian society have already reacted with their own bans including schools in the capital Oslo and the country\u2019s biggest company, oil and gas major Equinor, which has banned them from its offices and offshore facilities.<\/p>\n

Australia is considering a ban on smart glasses in certain public spaces while courtrooms in several countries have issued bans as the use of wearable technology increases.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0With Meta\u2019s \u2018pervert glasses\u2019, we really are going through the digital looking glassOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Norway\u2019s government said it did not want to propose a total ban. It said that appropriate use could be where there was no risk of filming people without their consent.<\/p>\n

It added that the proposed ban was a \u201chigh priority\u201d and that a draft law would soon be presented to parliament.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not want a society where people are concerned about hidden audio recordings, photography and filming in places and situations where they are used to being without being monitored. Such a society can be experienced as unsafe and cause us to withdraw,\u201d said Micaelsen.<\/p>\n

\"\"Should Meta’s ‘intrusive’ smart glasses be banned? <\/p>\n

US tech companies such as Meta<\/a>, Google<\/a> and OpenAI<\/a> believe wearable technology, such as smart glasses, has the potential to replace mobile phones as our main gateway to AI. They believe that talking to AI \u2013 which will listen to people\u2019s conversations and daily life \u2013 is easier than opening an app and typing in queries. Analysts at Counterpoint Research estimate consumers will spend more than $1tn between 2026 and 2032 on wearable devices.<\/p>\n

But that has raised widespread privacy concerns about what such smart glasses could see or hear, and led to them being dubbed \u201cpervert technology\u201d by some campaigners. \u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Norway has become the first major country to propose a temporary ban on the use of artificial intelligence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,14187,218,219,643,811,52071,823,61,542,8869,60,1226,104943,104988,7891,16277,80,812],"class_list":["post-645540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-audio","tag-california","tag-conference","tag-facebook","tag-ie","tag-instagram","tag-intelligence","tag-ireland","tag-meta","tag-meta-connect","tag-microphone","tag-north-america","tag-smart-glasses","tag-technology","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}