Meta

What AI do you use?

AI, Apps, Development / By

The choice of AI has to be an individual one. Everyone uses AI to a different degree and for different reasons. And there doesn’t have to be a single choice, often switching between AI models makes sense.

Still, at the end of the day many of these require subscriptions and often it’s necessary to make a choice on which AI to spend the most time and money working with (wait, you don’t use AI enough to subscribe to anything? Fair enough, but this is like the early days of the internet: you may not have had an ISP for a long while… but I bet you do now…)

My Choice

After extensive hands-on experience with both GPT-5, Gemini, Claude (and just about every other major AI available), Claude is now my go-to model.

That’s not to say I only use Claude. For instance I still rely on meta.ai for most of my mobile AI usage: answering questions and modal context (image understanding via cameras) queries. And of course… Nano Banana. Yeah. Ook ook.

Mobile AI with Meta.ai

While Claude anchors my desktop and agentic workflows, for mobile and on-the-go tasks, meta.ai is an indispensable companion in my daily tech routine. Integrated natively into my phone and wearables—especially the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses—meta.ai brings hands-free, voice-based assistance wherever I go. And it helps that it’s free, and due to the nature of my work I know Llama very well: it’s an excellent all-around useful model you can consider reliable.

How meta.ai enhances my mobile experience:

Instant Queries on the Move: Whether I’m out, I can simply ask meta.ai quick questions (directions, news, reminders) with my voice. On Meta Ray-Bans, a subtle tap activates the assistant, letting me stay productive without reaching for my phone. My smartwatch (which by the way is not an apple watch) lets me ask questions by voice with a touch of one of it’s buttons.

Awareness: Meta.ai adapts its responses based on my location, schedule, and device activity.

Wearable-Specific Experiences: On Ray-Bans, rich audio prompts and gesture support allow for truly convenient, head-up computing. And the RayBan display glasses are pretty amazing. I don’t have them, because they are selling out faster than we can make them! We are encouraged to wait and let non-employees get theirs first. But it’s only a matter of time, and in the meantime my gen-1 Meta Ray Bans are still pretty sweet (and heavily discounted this coming Black Friday I bet!)

Mobile App Deep Integration: The assistant can seamlessly connect with mobile apps (maps, social media, music), making multitasking smooth and contextually relevant.

Claude at Work and Home

Claude’s versatility truly shines in both my professional and personal environments. At work, well Meta and especially Reality Labs is a bit of a futurist playground when it comes to AI and we make a point of using everything to the best extent we can. At home, Claude takes on different roles through tools like Claude Desktop and Windsurf, a VSCode variant powered by Sonnet 4.5, aiding me in personal projects and experimentation. This seamless transition between contexts and deep customization makes Claude an indispensable part of my daily routine.

Instant Access with Claude Desktop

I don’t actually spend my time looking at financial graphs …but you get the idea. AI at the touch of a button is far more empowering than you might think.

A standout feature is Claude Desktop’s “summon prompt” (Ctrl+Alt+Space), providing instant interaction, no matter the task at hand. This quick accessibility is something I particularly value and wish was available in my professional setting. If you take a little time to get used to it, you will soon find that there really isn’t a point in google searches any more. Bring the information you actually want to you straight off, with analysis and organized the way you prefer… not just links of dubious value to sites that may not even let you in.

Agency and Customization

Claude’s agentic capabilities offer robust tools for customization, making personalization both simple and effective. Users can seamlessly add detailed personal information and instructions, creating unique workspace hierarchies. This flexibility allows Claude to adapt instructions based on specific workspaces or folders while maintaining context awareness. As a result, Claude understands my preferences and work style, effortlessly switching communication styles as needed.

Advanced Agentic Tools: Skills and MCP Integration

With Claude’s advanced agentic tools, the possibilities for streamlining tasks are endless. Claude’s “skills” allow for combining pre-prompt instructions with executable scripts, making automation a breeze. It even includes a skill for creating new skills—describe what you want, and Claude generates it. The MCP tool integration further elevates its capabilities, with a vetted catalog of automation scripts and extensions that enhance productivity and simplify setup

I have to admit that this pretty much captures my mental image of an “AI Agent.” I blame it on being exposed to Tron at an early age.

Power User Tricks in Claude Code

Claude Code, the CLI component, opens up a world of possibilities for advanced workflows. It allows for multi-agent orchestration, enabling the simultaneous operation of multiple Claude instances or other AIs like GPT. This feature is particularly valuable for large tasks that require efficient context management. And overall Claude Code is, simply put, a development powerhouse. However, users should be mindful of data usage, as it can be demanding.

Windsurf : The Hidden Gem

That said, if you want a VScode IDE experience with deep agency out of the box and seamless flow, you can’t get better than windsurf and it’s AI wrapper Cursor. It’s a joy to use and you have all the benefits of Claude Sonnet and Opus without having to worry so much about context lengths or setting up MCP tools straight out the gate. Ok, now wait you say: Google bought Windsurf, it’s now “Antigravity” right? Yeah. And they have some great ideas and improvements. BUT…. as of this writing, Antigravity is, from my experience, a hot mess. I look forward to what it CAN be… but right now, it isn’t that. I like my codebase intact, thanks. I’ll be sticking with Windsurf, and while I love Gemini for deep research and image operations I don’t trust it with agentic coding just yet.

Best-in-Class Reasoning and Planning

Claude’s prowess in complex reasoning, planning, and deep research sets it apart. When tackling intricate or multi-step projects, it consistently outperforms its counterparts, making it the clear winner for those challenges. I’m not talking about just benchmarks, but the entire holistic experience. The customization, styles, skills and planning mode compliments the thinking and reasoning of the model as well as its responsiveness and speed. Other models have their advantages, for instance Gemini’s multimodal capabilities raise the bar, but when it comes to the complete package Claude is, from my perspective, the most capable and versatile AI for my personal use. 

Will it remain so? It’s hard to say, Anthropic has some serious momentum and I admire them but I also get to see some of what’s cooking for the future, and all I can say is wow. If pressed I would predict that like most broadly applicable new technologies the AI landscape will settle into a complex ecosystem of options and taxonomies as opposed to a single monolithic entity dominating a myriad of use cases.

Embracing Openness

To my way of thinking, this is for the best. While Apple has certainly demonstrated that walled garden paradigms and tight control can lead to huge profits it is also now demonstrating the downside of being a monolithic entity: slow stagnation of innovation due to the need to maintain tight control and ever increasing energy spent stifling competition. From my work at Reality Labs I have a fresh appreciation of the value of competitive ecosystems and especially the potential of cooperative effort to improve through open source, shared standards, and academic discourse. Sure there is a degree of competition between my employer and Anthropic. But there is far more overlap of interests. Claude Sonnet and Opus are excellent models worth embracing, just as we hope people will embrace Llama Maverick or Segment Anything. Friends can compete to the benefit of all. Bring on the complex AI landscape and evolve together. Those who close themselves -and their user base- off from the wild world of evolving AI are doomed in the long term.

Caveats

Despite its many strengths, Claude does have some drawbacks. Its context window is large but varies according to plan. And Claude is pretty verbose when it’s thinking… meaning Claude can quickly run through available context, particularly with the desktop app. Desktop users doing more complex tasks should anticipate the need to frequently compress or restart conversations. Additionally, token consumption and cost can add up, especially if Sonnet 4.5 or Opus is not reserved for the most demanding tasks. Yes, customizations allow for mitigation of many issues, but also require real effort to get things to where they work best for you. The setup process also demands time, with a minimum of four hours needed to overcome verbose and overly proactive default settings.

Recommendations

For standard workflows involving organization, research, document writing, or minor coding, ChatGPT remains a robust choice. However, for power users who require deep customization, agentic automation, advanced research, and scalable application development, Claude proves, for me, to be superior.

To sum it up, Claude is a highly customizable, agentic AI that is most suitable for those prepared to invest time and resources into their AI solutions. For serious, all-in AI workflows, I believe Claude is positioned as the top choice for 2026 and likely beyond. I’m quite excited about the next developments cooking at Meta too, and look forward to getting to use them at home in a released state, particularly in the areas of mobile AI and content creation. This is an amazing future we find ourselves in. Embrace it and as always have fun.

Spatial Computing is Emerging

Tech Art / By

Spatial Computing: A New Era in Interaction

Emerging XR technology can completely change the way we entertain ourselves, communicate with others, or even get work done. Spatial computing is opening up exciting possibilities in these areas, merging our physical world with immersive digital experiences. VChatting with a friend in a virtual café, collaborating on a project in a shared 3D space, watching movies with loved ones across the country, playing new types of games and visiting places even if you can’t walk… Whether it’s through work, gaming, creative projects, or enhancing our everyday interactions, spatial computing is starting to reshape our reality in ways we never imagined.

Understanding XR, VR, MR, and AR – Terminology

  • Extended Reality (XR): This is an umbrella term that encompasses all immersive technologies, including Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR). XR represents a continuum of experiences that blend the physical and digital worlds.

  • Virtual Reality (VR): VR immerses users in a completely digital environment, often using a headset that blocks out the physical world. Users can interact with this virtual space using controllers or their hands.

  • Augmented Reality (AR): AR overlays digital information onto the real world. This is often achieved through devices like smartphones or AR glasses, allowing users to see and interact with digital elements while remaining aware of their physical surroundings.

  • Mixed Reality (MR): MR combines elements of VR and AR, allowing digital and physical objects to co-exist and interact in real-time. It utilizes advanced sensors and displays to provide a seamless blend of both worlds.

Use Cases for the Meta Quest 3 Beyond Gaming

The Meta Quest 3 is versatile, inexpensive and powerful mixed reality headset which has significant usage outside of just being a gaming platform:

  1. Education and Training: Institutions can use the Meta Quest 3 for immersive learning experiences, allowing students to explore complex subjects in a virtual environment. For example, medical students can practice surgeries in a simulated environment, and pilots can practice procedures prior to further training. Mixed reality adds a powerful new way to learn, for instance one example that impressed many was a mixed reality application that helps people learn to play the piano.

  2. Shared Spaces: People of all kinds can leverage the device for remote interactions, sharing the same space in 3d much like we communicate with tools like facetime or zoom. Only with a spatial computer people can share activities such as gaming, meetings, watching movies or looking at maps, all while experiencing the presence of the coworkers, friends or family they are interacting with.

  3. Creative Work: Artists and designers of all kinds already use the Quest headsets for many different tasks. Some artists have become widely known for their creations in a 3d space such as Tilt Brush. People can practice oil painting in mixed reality (it’s surprisingly good) and animators have created thousands of excellent experiences in Quill (visit the free app “Theatre Elsewhere to see their work.)

  4. Healthcare: Therapists can use VR therapy for exposure treatments or to create calming environments for patients, medical professionals can practice techniques, surgeons can guide surgical robots or view scan data with colleagues regardless of location.

  5. Fitness and Wellness: This is one area in which the current headsets are booming. Users can engage in guided workouts or meditation sessions in immersive environments that enhance the experience, lose weight while playing physical fitness oriented games, and even participate in shared biking and other workout sessions without having to travel to the gym or worry about the time.

  6. Virtual Screens: One of the most useful aspects of wireless mixed reality headsets is being able to create multiple virtual screens anywhere you like. They can be theatre scale or small windows sitting on your desk. In these screens you can view apps, watch films and video, play xbox games or perhaps most significantly connect to laptops and pcs to work from the comfort of your couch or hotel. Is your environment distracting? Replace your unpleasant surrounding while on a plane, at the hospital or in some skeevy hotel with a comforting virtual space filled with the content you care about. It’s pretty amazing to experience.

Tethered vs. Wireless VR

  • Tethered VR: This setup connects the VR headset to a computer or console through cables. While tethering can provide high-quality graphics and processing power, it limits mobility and can hinder the immersive experience.

  • Wireless VR: Wireless headsets, like the Meta Quest 3, provide greater freedom of movement and convenience. They are equipped with their own processing capabilities, allowing users to move around without being restricted by cables. While in wireless mode they sacrifice some of the powerful computing power of a PC with a big graphics card for versatility and freedom. And they can still tether to a PC when the extra power of a high end GPU is desired.

Passthrough Mixed Reality vs. Augmented Reality

  • Passthrough Mixed Reality: This technology uses external cameras to capture the physical environment, allowing users to see their surroundings with a digital overlay. The integration of real and virtual elements enables interactive experiences where digital content can interact with real-world objects.

  • Augmented Reality: In contrast, AR typically displays digital content over the physical world viewed through glasses or a visor. While AR enhances real-world views, passthrough mixed reality creates an interactive and immersive experience by merging both environments, with the option to replace or alter the passthru video, for instance dimming your surroundings while watching a movie.

Recent AI Advancements and Their Impact on Spatial Computing

Recent advancements in artificial intelligence have significantly accelerated the timeline for emerging spatial computing technologies. AI is enhancing various aspects of XR, including:

  • Natural Language Processing: This enables more intuitive interactions with virtual environments, allowing users to communicate with AI-driven avatars or systems using natural speech.

  • Computer Vision: AI-powered computer vision improves object recognition and tracking, enhancing the realism and interactivity of AR and MR experiences.

  • Content Creation: AI tools are streamlining the creation of virtual content, making it easier for developers to produce high-quality assets quickly.

These advancements not only expedite the development of spatial computing technologies but also broaden their accessibility, allowing more users to engage with these immersive environments.

The Social Potential of XR Devices

XR devices like the Meta Quest 3 hold substantial social potential. They can foster new forms of social interaction and community building, allowing users to connect in immersive spaces that transcend geographical limitations. For instance:

  • Virtual Social Spaces: Users can gather in virtual environments for social events, meetups, or collaborative projects, creating a sense of presence and connection that traditional video calls cannot replicate.

  • Shared Experiences: XR can facilitate shared experiences, such as watching movies or playing games together in a virtual setting, which can enhance social bonds.

  • Cultural Exchange: XR platforms can serve as venues for cultural exchange, where users from diverse backgrounds can share experiences, ideas, and creativity in a shared virtual space.

The Meta Orion Prototype and Future Use Cases

The Meta Orion prototype showcased a vision for the future of spatial computing, focusing on advanced features like improved field of view, new neural (EMG) interaction, and AI integration similar to the Meta Raybans. It proved that the time for advanced augmented reality is drawing near and how powerful an experience it could be even as a prototype.

Potential future use cases for spatial computing include:

  • Enhanced Telepresence: Combining virtual avatars and holograms, enabling more immersive remote interactions.

  • Smart Environments: Integrating spatial computing into smart home systems to allow users to interact with their surroundings through gestures and voice.

  • Workplace Solutions: Creating virtual workspaces that adapt to individual user needs, enhancing productivity and collaboration.

  • Personalized Shopping Experiences: AR applications that allow consumers to preview products in their homes before making a purchase.

Final Thoughts

Spatial computing represents a significant shift in how we engage with technology, offering innovative applications that extend far beyond entertainment. With headsets like the Meta Quest 3, we are entering a time where the opportunity to redefine interactions in education, business, and everyday life is emerging. Recent advancements in AI are further accelerating this evolution, making spatial computing technologies more powerful and accessible. As we continue to explore and develop these technologies, the potential for new experiences, social connections, and solutions will only expand.

This point in time is analogous to the early days of the “world wide web.” It was becoming increasingly clear this was a vast new frontier of computing but both the hardware and the applications were still treading new ground. Would the “world wide web” replace services like BBS systems, CompuServe and America Online? Everything was slow to load, and the graphics were not impressive (yet). But the potential was emerging faster and faster, and early adopters blazed new trails and created an entire vast ecosystem that today are used by almost 7 billion people. Spatial computing and XR is the next step in the long story of ever newer forms of media emerging to change the world. Theatre was replaced by radio, then movies emerged, then television, then computers, then portable multimedia in the form of smartphones and tablets, and now here we are at the next evolution.

It’s going to be a fun few decades.

Working in VR

Creative Work, Virtual and mixed reality / By

It’s been a while since my last post, mainly because I’ve been busy at Meta. Working in VR on a daily basis has been fascinating. Meetings in VR, working in a virtual office with a Quest Pro, and (now that the pro can be seen in public) traveling with that same virtual office.

There are a lot of things I can’t share but one thing which strikes me is the sheer speed at which VR is becoming a transformative tool for all kinds of business. Interestingly enough, the “standard” business use cases are emerging more rapidly than many of the creative scenarios.

In hindsight this makes sense… You can get a lot of work done with 2d applications on laptops and mobile devices already. While often creative work requires high-end physical setups with resolutions and color clarity not yet available in VR.

What VR is bringing to the table is that you can now use your ”standard” workplace applications tools in virtual spaces… which you can take with you.

By this I mean your workspace is not limited to your portable screen any more. You can take along your whole office (albeit a virtual one), with arrays of huge monitors around you to multitask as you prefer. And already you have increasing control of what the rest of the office around you looks like… a fireplace nearby, or a night sky and aurora above you… a music system, knickknacks on a shelf, photos of a loved one, a working clock on your desk, and so on.

The point is your virtual space can exist wherever you do. In a hotel room, airport terminal, or the cramped confines of airline seating (where the ability to be anywhere other than 9 inches away from the seat in front of you becomes a godsend..) Tired of the current layout or your view? You can change it around whenever you choose. Need an additional monitor? Just spawn another one.

With mixed reality, you can increasingly blend the real world around you with the virtual. You can see your real hands typing on a virtual keyboard. You can remain in VR but confidently move between your couch and your desk. Don’t worry, if your pet walks into your space you can see it, too.

And you can collaborate with your coworkers in your virtual office space, regardless of where you are. I do the majority of my work from my home and meet in VR a lot. I tend to prefer it to zoom meetings.

Sure, you are in a somewhat cartoony place with somewhat cartoony coworkers and self. Surprisingly that really doesn’t matter – you get used to it and even better you don’t have bad hair days or need to worry about what your physical surroundings may look like.

The sense of presence makes a big difference. The nature of discussions is impacted I think, and in a positive way. For better or worse, you are in the meeting. And I find the additional engagement this sense of presence delivers causes me to participate and remember the meeting more.

This sense of additional engagement from a VR presence has been observed in a number of studies which have measured considerable increase in participant’s retention of information in VR versus videoconferencing. And unlike physical real-world meetings participants can be scattered across the planet.

The first time I went to a real-world meeting with my team at meta I was immediately comfortable and productive with my teammates – despite never having actually been in the same room with them before. I knew them already, from VR. Their body language was familiar, their whole presence was known to me already, the fact that we were physically in the same room for the first time was unremarkable.

That’s not to say face-to-face communications are going by the wayside, not at all. Businesses are discovering that it’s critical to make sure closely partnered coworkers get some “real world” time. VR cannot replace face-to-face interactions entirely. But it can make remotely dispersed teams more comfortable and productive.

From any physical location you can all group up. You can read each other’s expressions and body language and feel their proximity. It doesn’t matter if you don’t look your best because your avatar looks fine. Meeting in VR gives you the immediacy of dropping into a videoconference with the familiarity (and retention) of a face to face meeting.

I can tap my headset and see the “real” world around me if I need to. My passthrough image on the Quest Pro is accurate and fully stereoscopic so I can comfortably reach out to grab a cup of hot coffee from a flight attendant, or pet my dog on the head in my home office… before jumping back “into” my VR space.

In a VR workspace I can mute myself but remain in the virtual room. I can see my laptop screen or project it onto the VR whiteboard so everyone can see it. I can draw on the whiteboard from my desk, point at it with a “laser pointer,” or get up in front of it to present to the others. Attendees who call in from “2d” (aka video participants using their cellphones or webcams) are there too.

And like the internet once did, this is going to change everything.

It’s transformative. This is why companies are purchasing headsets designed specifically for this kind of working, and why companies like Microsoft and Accenture are moving to bring their tools and workforces into the VR space.

Like the internet when it was new, you’re going to have to experience it for a while before the benefits of this new kind of media really sinks in. The tools and workflows are going to change and improve. Offices will get rid of the miles of cubicle spaces that exist today and instead emphasize conference spaces and comfortable temp locations for a more mobile and dispersed workforce.

Home workspaces will become more important, while costs once applied towards physical office infrastructure will be reduced to a degree and applied towards equipping a more remote workforce, and supporting periodic meetups.

This isn’t going away: you are going to experience it (if you haven’t already.) And in time literally everyone will. It’s that transformative.

Like the early internet, or smart phones, DVDs, streaming, the web and online shopping this inevitable, and it’s coming soon.

The first years are going to be marked by frustrations and constant change, but that’s part of the fun. Fortunes will be made and lost, new markets will emerge, and surprises are going to happen every step of the way… Enjoy the ride!