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Norway is preparing to become the first major country to impose a nationwide temporary ban on wearing artificial-intelligence-enabled smart glasses in public spaces, the government announced on 5 October. The measure targets devices capable of photographing, filming or recording audio without the knowledge of those nearby.
The Norwegian government said it plans to prohibit AI-equipped eyewear in locations including parks, beaches, schools, kindergartens and hospitals. A draft law is being developed and is expected to be submitted to parliament within days, according to the Financial Times, which first reported the announcement.
“The introduction of a powerful new technology that risks allowing people to be photographed, filmed or recorded without their knowledge is a cause for concern,” said Torgeir Michaelsen, Norway’s Minister of Digitalisation and Public Administration. He described the temporary ban as necessary to allow a thorough analysis of the situation and to develop permanent rules.
The government was explicit that an outright permanent prohibition on AI smart glasses is not under consideration. The interim measure is framed as a pause to allow regulators time to assess the technology’s privacy implications before crafting lasting legislation.
The Financial Times noted that Norway would be the first major state to introduce restrictions on AI smart glasses at a national level. More limited bans are already in place within the country: schools in Oslo and facilities operated by the oil and gas company Equinor have separately prohibited the devices. Comparable restrictions exist elsewhere — courts in England and Wales have barred Meta’s AI-equipped glasses from their premises — but none of those measures extend across an entire jurisdiction.
The proposal reflects growing unease among European governments about consumer-grade AI wearables that can capture and process information about bystanders in real time, raising questions that existing data-protection frameworks were not designed to answer.